Page:Women of distinction.djvu/268

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WOMEN OF DISTINCTION.

Christian Recorder in 1888, entitled "Memory." Her first story appeared in Our Women and Children. Since then she has continued to write. Her education was obtained in the public schools and in the State University of Louisville, Kentucky; also in the high school at Yankton, South Dakota, and in Wilberforce University, in Ohio.

Some very praiseworthy statements concerning her have appeared in The Statesman, Appeal and Torchlight, all of which did honor to this worthy young woman. The first poem that came from her pen, when only thirteen years old, was occasioned by a severe illness, and was entitled "The Dying Child." A sketch of her life has appeared in a leading New York journal, and also in the very excellent book by Mr. I. G. Penn, "Afro-American Press and its Editors." She is now preparing a volume of short stories for girls. Ill health has caused a laxity in her progress as a writer, but there is yet hope that she may become one of our greater lights, being yet young in years. The following is one of her poems on the condition of the race:

A QUESTION OF TO-DAY.

"And shall our people, long oppressed
By fierce, inhuman foe.
Not seek to have their wrongs redressed?
No! by their manhood, no!

"You men do call us women weak.
By Him who ruleth all,
For what was ours we'd dare to speak,
Menaced by cannon ball.