Great Poems for Black History Month

The Huffington Post's "Books" page is celebrating Black History Month with recommendations from Baratunde Thurston that range from how best to explore a "post-racial" society, to why this site should change its name to "The Blackington Post."

To supplement this advice from the vigilante pundit, I humbly offer a brief selection of classic and contemporary poems from the Poetry Foundation archive that explore and celebrate the rich tradition of African-American poetry. These poems range from the familiar (Langston Hughes' "I, Too") to the emergent (Thulani Davis' "skinny-dippin' in the gene pool"), and they're doubtlessly only a fraction of what has been studied, celebrated, and recited over the years. In any case, February is a great excuse to showcase them and to talk about other poems that celebrate and explore African-American history.

Do you have favorites that I've forgotten to mention? If so, please offer up your favorite selections in the comments section below, and in the meantime, stay tuned to Baratunde's twitter feed for more February suggestions.