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Demaret Blog Post 10/26

 

I’d like to situate Langston Hughes’ poems into the context of the Harlem Renaissance, specifically the rise of artistic works that reflected the generational trauma of Black Americans. The Great Migration, recently described by many scholars as a refugee phenomenon, led to massive demographic shifts and population surges in northern cities. In New York City, the Harlem neighborhood found itself at the center of a major creative movement dominated by Black authors, artists, and more. Langston Hughes was a powerful literary model for the Harlem Renaissance, shaping the concept of universality of Black trauma in literary works at a time where many American poets were writing intrinsically focused works (Poets.org).

Hughes’ poem “Let America Be America Again” portrays a unique sense of generational trauma that is often manifested in many Harlem Renaissance works. He directly connects the positions of where him and other Black Americans stood to the anguish of their ancestors. The lines “And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak. I am the young man, full of strength and hope, Tangled in that ancient endless chain Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!” (Hughes 1936) communicated a sense that whatever American dream was being promoted to the public did not apply to the oppressed. To Hughes, the America he lived in never escaped the wrath of white supremacy, let alone one that moved passed the haunting framework of slavery. 

Basic historiography tends to divide eras among progress. It is often oversimplified that slavery started, then slavery ended. Segregation started, then segregation ended. While advanced historiography recognizes the continuity of patterns across times and geographical scales, the general American public often fails to recognize the extent that institutions of white supremacy damage generations of progress for the oppressed. The collected works of Langston Hughes communicate this generational trauma not only as it affects him, but how it hurts his fellow community members as well. The American racial framework was not scrapped with the abolition of slavery- it merely adjusted and continued to oppress. Where historians can draw a direct connection of power structures from chattel slavery to Jim Crow to today, entire generations of Black families experience the trauma of ancestry that faced brutal institutions of white supremacy. Hughes and other Harlem Renaissance creators should be looked towards as leaders for those who create true societal power out of art and literature.

 

“Langston Hughes.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, poets.org/poet/langston-hughes. 

“Let America Be America Again by Langston Hughes – Poems | Academy of American Poets.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, poets.org/poem/let-america-be-america-again. 

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