Tao Te Ching

The Power of Goodness, the Wisdom Beyond Words
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Langston Hughes

1901 – 1967 CE

Pioneering elevator of Black culture

Social activist, people's poet, author, and journalist; Langston Hughes innovated “jazz poetry,” pioneered the cultural renaissance now called “when Harlem was in vogue,” and helped establish the first department of African-American studies. Dramatically representing American culture, both of his paternal great-grandmothers were slaves and both of his paternal great-grandfathers were slave owners. Some of his other ancestors were Native Americans, Speaker of the House Henry Clay, a Jewish slave trader, and white abolitionists. A classmate of Thurgood Marshall and friend of MLK, he challenged racial stereotypes, protested negative social conditions, and elevated African American self-image in the US and around the world. Martin Luther King carefully channeled Hughes’ poems.

Eras

Unlisted Sources

The Black Man Speaks

Quotes by Langston Hughes (8 quotes)

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars,
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

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“I swear to the Lord I still can't see
Why Democracy means Everybody but me.

Oh, yes, I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!”

from The Black Man Speaks

Themes: Democracy

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“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up Like a raisin in the sun?... Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.”

Themes: Dream

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“[Whitman's] all-embracing words lock arms with workers and farmers, Negroes and whites, Asiatics and Europeans, serfs, and free men, beaming democracy to all”

Themes: Pluralism

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“An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.”

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“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.”

Themes: God Water

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“If people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter… We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain free within ourselves.”

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“What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? … Or does it explode?”

Themes: Dream

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Quotes about Langston Hughes (0 quotes)

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