"Black Cross" (AKA "Hezekiah Jones", after the main character) is a poem by

Joseph Simon Newman Joseph Simon Newman (December 6, 1891 – November 10, 1960) was an American entrepreneur and writer. He was a founder of the Newman-Stern Company, and gained renown as a writer of both light and serious verse. Biography Joseph Newman was born ...

, published in his 1948 collection ''It Could Be Verse!''. Hezekiah was a poor black farmer, who worked his two acres of land; but, he also saved up for and read books. The white folks thereabouts thought him harmless enough, but that "reading ain't no good for an ignorant nigger". Reverend Green, of the white man's church, visited him and asked if he believed in the Lord, the church, and Heaven. Hezekiah replied, that he'd never seen the Lord; that the church was divided; and that he tried to be as good as he could without expecting anything from Heaven or the Lord. The poem was a signature piece of the American stage performer Lord Buckley. A live performance, in which he speaks the words over a solo female voice singing and humming the spiritual "

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" and a sparse instrumental accompaniment, is included on his 1959 album ''Way Out Humor'', re-released in 1964 as ''Lord Buckley in Concert''. Early in his career,

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

performed the poem, in slightly shortened form, as a spoken piece with guitar accompaniment in a style based on that of Lord Buckley. Two amateur recordings exist: on one of the Minnesota Hotel Tapes, December 1961, and on the Second Gaslight Tape, October 1962. The Minnesota performance was released on the 1969 bootleg album ''

Great White Wonder ''Great White Wonder'', or ''GWW'', is the first notable rock bootleg album, released in July 1969, and containing unofficially released recordings by Bob Dylan. It is also the first release of the famous bootleg record label Trademark of Quality ...

'', and has since been included in other unofficial compilations. The Gaslight performance was released on the unofficial 1985 album ''Gaslight Tapes''.

References

{{reflist 1948 poems American poems Songs about black people Songs against racism and xenophobia Songs critical of religion Lynching in the United States Bob Dylan songs