"Scottsboro"; "Ballad of Roosevelt"; "Let America Be America Again"

Poems

By: Langston Hughes

Date: 1932; 1934; 1936

Source: Hughes, Langston. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. Edited by Arnold Rampersad. New York: Knopf, 1994, 234?237.

About the Author: Langston Hughes (1902?1967) was first published in a national magazine at age nineteen. Through his poetry, he became known as a major voice of the African American experience. Hughes often wrote about the plight of the oppressed, prejudice against African Americans, the American working class, or the struggle of peoples overseas. He traveled widely in the United States and abroad but considered Harlem his true home. Hughes died in a New York City hospital.

Introduction

The 1930s was a decade of great social unrest. Conditions were far from the American ideal, and Hughes' poetry...