Who is Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer

Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer (September 1868 - May 24, 1936) was a poet and teacher in Orangeburg, South Carolina.

Biography

She taught at the Normal and Grammar Schools, Claflin University, Orangeburg, South Carolina from 1895 to 1899. In 1907, she published a collection of poems, "Prejudice Unveiled and Other Poems". English Professor Joan R. Sherman described Moorer's poems as the "best poems on racial issues written by any black woman until the middle of the century." Moorer attacks "lynching, debt peonage, white rape, Jim Crow segregation, and the hypocrisy of the church and the white press".Moorer was born in September 1868 to Warren D. Jenkins and Mattie Miller in Pickens, South Carolina. In 1899, she married Jacob Moorer, an attorney in Orangeburg who fre...
Read Full Biography of Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer


Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer Poems

  • Injustice Of The Courts
    Whites alone upon the jury in a number of the states,
    Thus they crush a helpless Negro with their prejudicial hates;
    Legal ills they thrust upon him, and the tale is passing sadâ??
    Equal rights with white men? Never! Color-phobia makes them mad. ...
  • Emancipation Day
    The sixties brought a clash of armsâ??
    The mem'ry of it thrills and charmsâ??
    While Negro slaves for freedom prayed,
    Till Heaven bowed to give them aid. ...
  • The Southern Press
    When a Negro comes in question you may watch the Southern press,
    See how bias its opinions, how his ills are given stress,
    Prominence is given headlines, when accused he is of crime,
    Emphasizes all the evils of the Negro ev'ry time. ...
  • The Crum Appointment
    You, no doubt, have heard the story told of Charleston by the sea,
    How they persecute a Negro when a man he tries to be,
    'Tis of national importance and the world enjoys the sport,
    Caused by William Crum's appointment as collector of the port. ...
  • A Legal Mouse
    A lawyer had a legal mouse,
    A naughty one they say,
    That took possession of his house
    And papers ev'ry day, ...
Read All Poems


Top 10 most used topics by Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer

Life 3 Peace 3 True 3 Bring 3 Heaven 2 Sweet 2 Away 2 Good 2 I Love You 2 Love 2


Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer Quotes

Read All Quotes


Comments about Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer

Lisabaskin: moorer, lizelia augusta jenkins. prejudice unveiled: and other poems. boston: roxburgh publishing company, 1907. in this volume of poetry, activist poet lizelia moorer, a teacher at south carolina’s first black…
Dprescon: "let us give thanks to god above, thanks for expressions of his love, seen in the book of nature, grand taught by h...
Thepoetryapp: the religious wars of europe have been numbered with the past but a worse thing, bright america with clouds has...
Read All Comments


Write your comment about Lizelia Augusta Jenkins Moorer


Poem of the day

Eugene Field Poem
Suppose
 by Eugene Field

Suppose, my dear, that you were I
And by your side your sweetheart sate;
Suppose you noticed by and by
The distance 'twixt you were too great;
Now tell me, dear, what would you do?
I know-and so do you.

And when (so comfortably placed)
...

Read complete poem

Popular Poets