Is There a Black Man Ringing the Bell?

Rida dove has been teaching at the university of virginia for many years. She says a poem written by henry martin, who was born into slavery on the day that thomas jefferson died, is profound and beautiful. "I am no longer a dreadful coincidence, nor debt crossed off in a dead man's ledger," he writes. 'This is my place, stone rookery, perched above the citadels of knowledge'