Old Poetry Old Poetry Poetry • Poets • Essays • Forums •

Robert C O Benjamin

I lived from 1855-1900. I was from the USA, and am in the Americas category.

Robert Charles O'Hara Benjamin, an African American, attended Trinity College in Oxford, Virginia. Studied law with Kentucky State Attorney Dave Smith and with Josiah Patterson of Memphis, Tennessee. Worked as a soliciting agent for New York Star, city editor of the Progressive American, letter carrier in New York Post Office for helping in Rutherford B. Hayes' campaign, school teacher in Kentucky and Arkansas, principal of high school in Decatur, Alabama, editor of the Negro American in Birmingham, Alabama. Owned and edited the Colored Citizen in Pittsburgh and the Chronicle in Evansville, Indiana.



It is said that he was the first black lawyer in California, by sources now unverified that Benjamin was the first black lawyer in California. This should be verifiable as Benjamin is reportedly profiled in James D. Hart's A Companion to California ( New York: Oxford University Press, 1978). It is also reported that Benjamin was murdered in 1901 although some sources place his death in 1900.

Popular poetry

Search my poetry:
1 - 10 of 18  Show all by written, popularity, title, first line
  • Hades
    Darkest clouds of blackest Hades,
      Whirling onward into space;
    51 lines, 8 comments
  • Henry Highland Garnett, D.D.
    Into the great unknown,
    Bravely he departed,
    24 lines
  • Let Me Die And Dream Of Thee
    Sweetest lady, beautious, fair,
    Thou alone my heart shall share,
    16 lines, 1 comment
  • Changed? No, Never!
    Changed? Nay, I'll ne'er confess that I have changed.
    My heart still loves you, in its old fond way,
    16 lines
  • Colored Heroes, Hark The Bugle (Political)
    Colored heroes seek your standard,
    Know you not the foemen's near,
    32 lines
  • A Dream
    I dreamed that I loved a sweet maiden,
    With hair of bright rippling gold;
    20 lines
  • Love Is Victor, Love Is King
    Ambition, wealth, yea, life itself,
    All stand for naught when love is crowned,
    20 lines
  • Anxiously Waiting
    Lonely and cheerless, the drear days are passing,
    No home and no comfort, they bring to my mind;
    20 lines
  • The Colored Press
    Whilst perusing exchanges their dispositions I've traced,
    I've paid some attention to their mode of embrace;
    32 lines
  • Dearest
    I have loved thee fond and truly,
    In years that have passed away,
    20 lines
1 - 10 of 18  Show all by written, popularity, title, first line

Start a forum topic about this poet

, Content