For My People by Margaret Walker
"For My People" is a powerful poem by Margaret Walker that articulates the collective experiences and struggles of African Americans throughout history. Written during a moment of inspiration, the poem employs techniques such as repetition and vivid imagery to convey deep emotional and political resonance, suitable for oral presentation. It begins with an acknowledgment of the historical legacy of slavery, capturing a spectrum of sentiments from sorrow to moments of joy within the enslaved community.
Walker transitions through time, reflecting on her childhood in Alabama and the realities of segregation, while celebrating the resilience of African Americans who navigated life's challenges with courage and hope. The poem vividly depicts urban African American life in cities like Chicago and New Orleans, highlighting the persistent socio-economic barriers faced by the community.
Through its ten stanzas, "For My People" encapsulates themes of struggle, identity, and the yearning for a more equitable society, culminating in a call for unity and a new world defined by shared freedom and justice. The work stands as a testament to the enduring spirit of African Americans and their quest for dignity and inclusion in a society fraught with inequality.
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For My People by Margaret Walker
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First published: 1937 (collected in For My People, 1942)
Type of work: Poem
The Work
“For My People” was mostly written in a fifteen-minute burst of brilliant inspiration. Its principal tactics are inventory—a concretization of the feeling—and repetition, a concentration and intensification of the poem’s passion and political resolve, especially tuned for oral presentation.
Stanza I begins the chronology of African American history with the first of six incantations of “for my people,” recalling the songs of an enslaved race—of sadness, of verbal play, of grief, of the rare times of joy, and of supplication and submission to whatever God has willed.
Stanza II describes the tasks of slavery, performed in uncompensated and blind hope: “washing, ironing, cooking, scrubbing, sewing, mending, hoeing, plowing, digging, planting, pruning, patching.”
Stanza III goes from the ancestral past to Walker’s childhood with a list of her places and acts of play in Alabama—baptizing, preaching, doctor, jail, soldier, school, mama, cooking, concert, store, hair, and “Miss Choomby and company,” Walker’s childhood code for African American grown-up women.
Stanza IV remembers the experience of going to a segregated school to learn the bitter truth of how being black in America was to be poor and politically ignored.
Stanza V celebrates the youth who bravely grew to maturity against these obstacles, had some fun and joy, married and had children, and then died of “consumption and anemia and lynching.”
Stanza VI cameos the African American neighborhoods of Chicago, New York, and New Orleans, where the lack of money and property form a backdrop for African Americans who dream their hope in spite of their disenfranchisement.
Stanza VII evokes the manic-depressive state of African Americans made crazy by the social forces and manipulation of a majority race “who tower over us omnisciently and laugh.”
Stanza VIII is a mini-chronicle of the sincere and unceasing attempts by African Americans to join American society, in churches, schools, clubs, societies, associations, councils, committees, and conventions—only to be cheated and deceived in money and religious association by the white ruling majority—the “facile force of state.”
Stanza IX declares admiration “for my people,” hoping to make a world of universal brotherhood to replace the fascist one that suppresses African Americans.
Finally, stanza X closes the litany of pain, endurance, grief, and relentless hope with the poem’s famous incantation, calling for a new world, born of a “bloody peace,” peopled by a courageous and freedom-loving new generation, a race of people—perhaps an alliance of Caucasians and African Americans—that will “rise and take control.”
Bibliography
Barksdale, Richard K. “Margaret Walker: Folk Orature and Historical Prophecy.” In Black American Poets Between Worlds, 1940-1960, edited by R. Baxter Miller. Tennessee Studies in Literature 30. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1986.
Berke, Nancy. Women Poets on the Left: Lola Ridge, Genevieve Taggard, Margaret Walker. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2001.
Buckner, B. Dilla. “Folkloric Elements in Margaret Walker’s Poetry.” CLA Journal 33 (1990): 367-377.
Carmichael, Jacqueline Miller. Trumpeting a Fiery Sound: History and Folklore in Margaret Walker’s “Jubilee.” Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998.
Graham, Maryemma, ed. Conversations with Margaret Walker. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2002.
Graham, Maryemma, ed. Fields Watered with Blood: Critical Essays on Margaret Walker. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001.
Klotmas, Phyllis. “’Oh Freedom’—Women and History in Margaret Walker’s Jubilee.” Black American Literature Forum 11 (1977): 139-145.
Miller, R. Baxter. “The ’Intricate Design’ of Margaret Walker: Literary and Biblical Re-Creation in Southern History.” In Black American Poets Between Worlds, 1940-1960, edited by Miller. Tennessee Studies in Literature 30. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1986.
Ward, Jerry W., Jr. “A Writer for Her People: An Interview with Dr. Margaret Walker Alexander.” Mississippi Quarterly 41, no. 4 (Fall, 1998): 515-527.