Langston Hughes—American (1902-1967)

Langston Hughes—American (1902-1967)

ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 | Lavery

Booker T. Washington (1856-

1915)


W. E. B. Dubois

(1868-1963)


Martin Luther King (1929-1968)


Malcolm X (1925-1965)


Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)

Martin Luther King (1929-1968)

W. E. B. Dubois (1868-1963)

Malcolm X (1925-1965)


Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)


Do the Right Thing (1989)



Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960): novelist, anthropologist


James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938): Writer, Poet


Claude McKay (1889-1948): Poet


Jean Toomer (1894-1967): Novelist and Poet


Paul Robeson (1898-1976): Actor


Countee Cullen (1903-1946)


The Negro Speaks of Rivers

I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known rivers: Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.


Harlem

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?


Mother to Son

Well, son, I'll tell you:Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.It's had tacks in it,And splinters,And boards torn up,And places with no carpet on the floor --Bare.But all the timeI'se been a-climbin' on,And reachin' landin's,And turnin' corners,And sometimes goin' in the darkWhere there ain't been no light.So boy, don't you turn back.Don't you set down on the steps'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.Don't you fall now --For I'se still goin', honey,I'se still climbin',And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.


I, Too

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And grow strong.

Tomorrow,I'll be at the tableWhen company comes.Nobody'll dareSay to me,"Eat in the kitchen,"Then.


I, Too

Besides, They'll see how beautiful I amAnd be ashamed--

I, too, am America.


from Let America Be America AgainLet America be America again.Let it be the dream it used to be.Let it be the pioneer on the plainSeeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--Let it be that great strong land of loveWhere never kings connive nor tyrants schemeThat any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where LibertyIs crowned with no false patriotic wreath,But opportunity is real, and life is free,Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.”)


from Let America Be America Again

. . .

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dreamIn the Old World while still a serf of kings,Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,That even yet its mighty daring singsIn every brick and stone, in every furrow turnedThat's made America the land it has become.O, I'm the man who sailed those early seasIn search of what I meant to be my home-For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,And torn from Black Africa's strand I cameTo build a "homeland of the free."

The free?


from Let America Be America Again

O, let America be America again--The land that never has been yet-And yet must be--the land where every man is free.The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--Who made America,Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose-The steel of freedom does not stain.From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,We must take back our land again,America!

O, yes,I say it plain,America never was America to me,And yet I swear this oath--America will be!


Song for a Dark Girl

Way Down South in Dixie (Break the heart of me) They hung my black young lover To a cross roads tree.

Way Down South in Dixie (Bruised body high in air) I asked the white Lord Jesus What was the use of prayer.

Way Down South in Dixie (Break the heart of me) Love is a naked shadow On a gnarled and naked tree.



Theme for English B

The instructor said,

Go home and writea page tonight.And let that page come out of you--Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it's that simple?I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.I went to school there, then Durham, then hereto this college on the hill above Harlem.

ENGL 2030—Summer 2013 |

Lavery

Columbia University

Theme for English B“to this college on the hill above Harlem”


Columbia University-> Harlem

Theme for English B [continued]

I am the only colored student in my class.The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem,through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevatorup to my room, sit down, and write this page:


Theme for English B

It's not easy to know what is true for you or me at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:hear you, hear me--we two--you, me, talk on this page.(I hear New York, too.) Me--who?Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.I like a pipe for a Christmas present,or records--Bessie, bop, or Bach.I guess being colored doesn't make me not likethe same things other folks like who are other races.So will my page be colored that I write?


Theme for English B

Being me, it will not be white. But it will bea part of you, instructor. You are white-- yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. That's American.Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me. Nor do I often want to be a part of you.But we are, that's true! As I learn from you, I guess you learn from me-- although you're older--and white-- and somewhat more free.

This is my page for English B.


Documents

Langston Hughes—American (1902-1967)