Address to the African Nation: We will fight back! #DaunteWright and Imprisoned Intellectuals America’s Political Prisoners Write on Life, Liberation, and Rebellion, Edited by Joy James

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If We Must Die

Claude McKay – 1889-1948

If we must die—let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursed lot.

If we must die—oh, let us nobly die,

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

Oh, Kinsmen! We must meet the common foe;

Though far outnumbered, let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!

What though before us lies the open grave?

Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,

Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

Chairman Omali’s Address to the African Nation and David Walker’s Appeal

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In September 1829, Walker published his appeal to African Americans entitled Walker’s Appeal, in Four Articles; Together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America, Written in Boston, State of Massachusetts, September 28, 1829. The purpose of the document was to encourage readers to take an active role in fighting their oppression, regardless of the risk, and to press white Americans to realize the moral and religious failure of slavery. “David Walker, 1785-1830”. University of North Carolina. Archived from the original on April 1, 2012. Retrieved June 7, 2012.