As Langston Hughes sat down to write: Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be. Let it be the pioneer on the plain Seeking a home where he himself is free. (“Let America...” 1-4) he was not inspired, as he often was, by a random thought that popped to his head, nor was he writing about something he felt at the moment. He was writing about something that he had felt for most of his life. As Hughes wrote, “there’s never been equality for me/Nor freedom in this ‘homeland of the free,’” he was inspired by his childhood and the issues that his racial and social differences brought him. Langston Hughes was a poor African-American in the early 20th century, and because of this, he wrote primarily about the American dream
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Rufus Clement is Chief Adviser,
A. Philip Randolph the High Grand Worthy. (42-45) to depict a world where black people have taken political power. This poem is powerful because it not only lets us see the dream that Hughes had, but it also puts his idea into the mind of the reader. At a time when black rights were not even considered by the general public, writings like this brought hope to the many black citizens in America who felt like Hughes did in “Let America be America Again” when he wrote, “America was never America to me.” Hughes’ step-father could not keep a job so by the summer before his freshman year they moved to Cleveland, Ohio. This was very economical because the United States had just entered World War I and African-Americans were being hired in industrial cities like Cleveland to help manufacture weapons and supplies for the war. Although his step-father could not keep a job very well, Hughes did recognize how hard he tried to supply for the family. “Freedom’s Plow” is about working hard to achieve one’s dreams and opens with these 8 lines: When a man starts out with nothing,
When a man starts out with his hands
Empty, but clean,
When a man starts to build a
Rufus Clement is Chief Adviser,
A. Philip Randolph the High Grand Worthy. (42-45) to depict a world where black people have taken political power. This poem is powerful because it not only lets us see the dream that Hughes had, but it also puts his idea into the mind of the reader. At a time when black rights were not even considered by the general public, writings like this brought hope to the many black citizens in America who felt like Hughes did in “Let America be America Again” when he wrote, “America was never America to me.” Hughes’ step-father could not keep a job so by the summer before his freshman year they moved to Cleveland, Ohio. This was very economical because the United States had just entered World War I and African-Americans were being hired in industrial cities like Cleveland to help manufacture weapons and supplies for the war. Although his step-father could not keep a job very well, Hughes did recognize how hard he tried to supply for the family. “Freedom’s Plow” is about working hard to achieve one’s dreams and opens with these 8 lines: When a man starts out with nothing,
When a man starts out with his hands
Empty, but clean,
When a man starts to build a