The Black Devils and Other Poems.
Louisville, Ky. Pentecostal Publishing Company, [1919]. 56pp. Original green cloth, white titles. Mild rubbing and very light soiling, minor bumping to top corners. Internally clean and bright. Very good plus. Item #4610
A rare work by African American poet Sterling M. Means, who dedicates the book "To the Nine Hundred Thousand Black Troops who fought in France and Flanders" during the First World War. The titular poem is in fact a reference to the Eighth Illinois Regiment which was renamed the 370th Infantry during their service in World War I. The regiment was composed of African American soldiers and was the only American military regiment also commanded by African American officers. The 370th was one of the fiercest fighting units in France, earning the nickname "Black Devils" by German soldiers fighting in the Argonne Forest. Means honors the Black Devils with the first poem in the present collection, but also authors other poems on the First World War, along with poems on Booker T. Washington, "The Ghost of S. Louis," and writes some poems in dialect. Means is still a somewhat obscure figure; he was apparently born in Alabama in 1882 and educated (though where is currently lost to history). In later life, he served as a minister in the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church and authored other books of poetry and African history.
Price: $250