THE KINDER MISTRESS

The lazy, laughing South With blood on its mouth.…
Passionate, cruel, Honey-lipped, syphilitic—
That is the South.
And I, who am black,
would love her
But she spits in my face.…
So now I seek the North—
The cold-faced North,
For she, they say,

is a kinder mistress. —

LANGSTON HUGHES, “THE SOUTH”


Wilkerson, Isabel (2010-09-07). The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (Kindle Locations 4101-4109). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.