Lament for Dark Peoples
I was a red man one time,
But the white men came.
I was a black man, too,
But the white men came.
They drove me out of the forest.
They took me away from the jungles.
I lost my trees.
I lost my silver moons.
Now they’ve caged me
In the circus of civilization.
Now I herd with the many—
Caged in the circus of civilization.
-Langston Hughes
Art by Rui Silvestre
Student curator: Leslie Washington