A previously unpublicized poem by W. E. B. Du Bois on the Rosenberg executions

it's a banger

I was recently reading through the Freedom Archives' collections on political prisoners in the US. I came across a poem attributed to famous socialist historian W. E. B. Du Bois. The poem has a lot of symbolic Christian language, so I tried searching to see if others had discussed its meaning.

I found nothing. In fact, no other website seems to transcribe or discuss this poem at all!

This blogpost aims to solve that problem. The post below will contain two parts:

1. The poem in full

2. A brief discussion of the poem

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Part 1: The Rosenbergs: Ethel and Michael, Robert and Julius

by W. E. B. Du Bois

Crucify us, Vengeance of God

As we crucify two more Jews,

Hammer home the nails,

Thick through our skulls,

Crush down the thorns,

Rain red the bloody sweat

Thick and heavy, warm and wet.

We are the murderers hurling mud

We the witchhunters, drinking blood

To us shriek five thousand blacks

Lynched without trial

And hundred thousands mobbed

The millions dead in useless war.

But this, this awful deed we do today

This senseless, blasphemy of birth

Fills full the cup!

Hail Hell and glory to Damnation!

O blood-stained nation,

Stretch forth your hand! Grasp it, Judge

Wrap it in your blood-red gown;

And Lawyer in your sheet of shame;

Proud pardoners of petty thieves

Cautious rabbis of just Jehovah,

And silent priests of the piteous Christ;

Crawl, wedded liars, hide from sight,

In the dirt of all the night,

And hold high vigil at the dawn!

For yonder, two pale and tight-lipped children

Stagger across the world, bearing their dead.

There lifts a light upon the Sea

With grim color, crooked form and

broken lines; With thunderous throb and roll of drums

Alleluia, Amen!

Now out beyond the plain

Streams the thick sunshine, sheet on sheet

Of billowing light!

Above the world loom vast sombre hills

Limned in lurid lightings;

While from beneath the hideous sick- ened earth,

The sea rains up flood on flood

To cleanse the heavens.

Twixt Sun and Sea,

Rises the Great Black Throne.

Sternly the pale children march on

Bearing high on their hands

Father and Mother.

The drums roll until the Land quivers with pain

And slowly yawns:

The childen prone bow down

They bow and kneel and lie;

They lay within the earth's deep breast

The beautiful young mother and her mate.

Straight up from endless depths

Rise then the Bearers of the Pall

Sacco and Vanzetti, old John Brown

And Willie McGee.

They raise the crucified aloft.

The purple curtains of Death unwind.

Hell howls, Earth screams

And Heaven weeps.

High from above its tears

Drops down a staircase from the Sun

Around it with upstretched hands,

Surge of triumph and dirge of shame,

Gather the mighty Dead:

Buddha, Mahmoud and Isaiah

Jesus, Lincoln and Toussaint

Savonarola and Joan of Arc;

And all the other millions,

In throng on throng unending,

Weeping, Singing,

With music rising heaven-high,

And bugles crying to the sky

With trumpets, harps and dulcimers;

With inward upward swell of utter song.

Then through their ranks,

Resplendent robes of silken velvet,

Broidered with flame, float down;

About the curling gown

Drop great purple clouds, burgeon and enthrall,

Swirl out and grandly close, until alone,

Two golden feet appear,

As of a king descending to his throne.

In the great silence and embracing gloom,

We the murderers Groan and moan:

"Hope of the Helpless

Hear us pray!

America the Beautiful,

This day! This day!

Who was enthroned in sunlit air?

Who has been crowned on yonder stair?

Red Resurrection,

Or Black Despair?"

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Part 2: Discussion

I can't do the poem justice by annotating it in full -- I don't have enough background on contemporary American history or end-times Christian symbology. (Du Bois was an atheist, but like all good atheists, he loves eschatological language.)

But the final stanzas struck a chord with me, and I'd like to give them my best:

Two golden feet appear,

As of a king descending to his throne.

Christ descends from Heaven to rule over Earth (see Revelation 21's "throne"). The earlier "staircase from the Sun" is likely a reference to Jacob's Ladder, which now Christ descends -- albeit a bit less dramatically than in Revelation 19:11-18.

In the great silence and embracing gloom,

We the murderers Groan and moan:

"We the murderers" refers to humanity itself, who have aided or ignored the deaths of millions through "useless war", "five thousand blacks" through lynching, and now the Rosenberg executions.

"Hope of the Helpless

Hear us pray!

America the Beautiful,

This day! This day!

Psalm 142 is sometimes subtitled as "God is the hope of the helpless". In Du Bois' poem, the Hope of the Helpless is God manifested through Christ's second coming on Earth, who we are speaking to. "We" is humanity itself -- here, the humanity living in "America the Beautiful".

Who was enthroned in sunlit air?

Who has been crowned on yonder stair?

Red Resurrection,

Or Black Despair?"

I have two interpretations for this verse:

1. Biblical interpretation: "Red Resurrection" may be a reference to Jesus' red robes, dipped in blood, when Christ returns to Earth and resurrects those found in the Book of Life (for example, see Revelation 19:13 and Revelation 20:11-15). "Black Despair" likely refers to the sense of darkness that surrounds those abandoned by God (for example, see the end of Psalm 88). In this interpretation, "we the murderers" (humanity) ask Christ whether He has come to redeem and resurrect us, or abandon us for our crimes.

2. Socialist interpretation: The common leftist phrase "socialism or barbarism" suggests that society has two paths: Toward socialism (usually shown in red) or toward barbarism (roughly, fascism, usually shown in brown or black). I can't find firm evidence that Du Bois was aware of this framing. But the poem was written at the height of the red scare. During World War 2, many people became open socialists -- but these people were now stripped of their positions and ostracized. If accurate, Du Bois asks: Will we emerge from our crimes into "red resurrection" (socialism), or will we double down on them into "black despair" (fascism)?

Whatever Du Bois meant, I'll say that this line spoke to me in 2023, 70 years after he penned it. Humanity faces worldwide rising reactionary movements and democratic backsliding. Humanity watches millions of people die of starvation every year -- and sends them a pittance. Humanity faces catastrophic climate change -- and looks likely to survive it not because of forethought but because we lucked out on ultracheap renewables. This is our Black Despair.

We can't continue to let our world be governed by wars of petty national squabbling, by reactionary and theocratic nonsense, by politics led by plutocrats. We need a Red Resurrection.