Christ in Alabama Lyrics
Christ is a Nigger,
Beaten and black--
O, bare your back.
Mary is His Mother
Mammy of the South,
Silence your Mouth.
God's His Father--
White Master above
Grant us your love.
Most holy bastard
Of the bleeding mouth:
Nigger Christ
On the cross of the South.
Beaten and black--
O, bare your back.
Mary is His Mother
Mammy of the South,
Silence your Mouth.
God's His Father--
White Master above
Grant us your love.
Most holy bastard
Of the bleeding mouth:
Nigger Christ
On the cross of the South.
About
Genius Annotation
The cryptic simplicity of ‘Christ in Alabama’ exhibits Hughes at his best. Profound insight is carelessly draped in the most facile diction and form, the most commonplace images. There is no decoration or pedantry […] The poem evokes the feeling that great art so often evokes: that it could not have been done any other way. It commands both accessibility and depth. Hughes is a master at clothing the complex and profound in simple garb; and perhaps it is this more than any other quality that marks him as a great poet.
–Onwuchekwa Jemie, from Langston Hughes: An Introduction to the Poetry, 1976, Columbia University Press, via Modern American Poetry
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