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This volume, except for some later additions, was ready for the press in 1921, when it would have been a pioneer in the field. Though it has lost this primacy through the recent appearance of two other volumes, we feel that there is still a place for it in that it gives fuller representation to the older poets and includes some contemporary poets omitted by the later books. Our own sins of omission in this latter field—and there are so many Negroes writing respectable verse today that doubtless we have overlooked many desirable poems—must be left to the charity of the reader and to the chance of a second edition in which, proverbially, all things are to be made perfect.

As Southern white men who desire the most cordial relations between the races we hope that this volume will help its white readers more clearly to understand the Negro's feelings on certain questions that must be settled by the coöperation of the two races. From the same point of view we hope that Negro readers, too accustomed, perhaps, to a debilitating literary patronage, will not misinterpret as unfriendly a critical attitude in which we have tried to supplant patronage with honest, unbiased appraisal.

In the content of this volume Professor White is responsible for the Introduction and for the Bibliographical and Critical Notes; Professor Jackson is responsible for the biographical sketches; the choice of selections is a matter of joint responsibility.