Better known, perhaps, as a journalist than as a poet, McCall never published a collection of his poems. This sonnet was included in anthologies by Countee Cullen (Caroling Dusk) and Howard professor Rosey Pool (Beyond the Blues: New Poems by American Negroes). It is one of my all time favorites, both due to its perfect sonnet structure and the timeliness of its and tone and message. In conversations I have often compared it to the Claude McKay sonnet, If We Must Die, because its theme and direction are so upbeat, so inspiring.
Blinded by typhoid fever, McCall gave up his university studies at Howard, but later finished at Albion College. For several years he published a newspaper with his wife in Alabama, The Emancipator. Following attacks by the KKK, he relocated his family to Detroit, where he founded the Detroit Tribune. McCall retired in the mid-40’s. He died in 1963.
James Edward McCall – The New Negro
from Cullen, Caroling at Dusk
He scans the world with calm and fearless eyes,
Conscious within of powers long since forgot;
At every step, new man-made barriers rise
To bar his progress–but he heeds them not.
He stands erect, though tempests round him crash,
Though thunder bursts and billows surge and roll;
He laughs and forges on, while lightnings flash
Along the rocky pathway to his goal.
Impassive as a Sphinx, he stares ahead –
Foresees new empires rise and old ones fall:
While caste-mad nations lust for blood to shed,
He sees God’s finger writing on the wall.
With soul awakened, wise and strong he stands,
Holding his destiny within his hands.
Here is a lovely bio piece written by his daughter: https://findingeliza.com/archives/187
ModPo 