An African American writer, publisher, and businessman, James Ephraim McGirt was born in Robeson County in North Carolina. In 1895, he earned a BA from Bennett College. McGirt worked as a manual laborer until 1903, when he moved to Philadelphia and launched McGirt’s Magazine. As editor and publisher, McGirt featured his own prose and poetry “urging race advancement along with writings by prominent African Americans.” In 2004, McGirt was inducted into the Literary Hall of Fame by the North Carolina Writers’ Network. Although he did not garner literary acclaim during his lifetime, McGirt created a significant publishing outlet for other early-20th-century African American writers.
More By This Poet
Nothing to Do
The fields are white;
The laborers are few;
Yet say the idle:
There’s nothing to do.
Jails are crowded;
In Sunday-schools few;
We still complain:
There’s nothing to do.
Drunkards are dying—
Your sons, it is true;
Mothers’ arms folded
With nothing to do.
Heathens are dying;
Their blood falls on you;
How can...
Born Like the Pines
Born like the pines to sing,
The harp and song in m’ breast,
Though far and near,
There’s none to hear,
I’ll sing as th’ winds request.
To tell the trend of m’ lay,
Is not for th’ harp or me;
I’m only to know,
From the winds...