The Poem ' Merry Go Round ' By Langston Hughes

The term “Jim Crow” originally referred to a black character in an old story and was the name of a popular dance in the 1820s. Thomas “Daddy” Rice created a routine in which he blacked his face, wore old clothes and sang and dance in an imitation of an old and decrepit black man. In the song, Rice published the words to the song, “Jump, Jim Crow,” in 1830. An example of the Jim Crow law is the Montgomery bus operators. They were supposed to separate their coaches into two sections: whites were up front, and the blacks were in the back. The white section had comfortable seats, while black’s seats were hard and not as comfortable as the white passenger’s seats. The U.S. military allowed African Americans to participate in World War II. (u-s-history.com)

“Merry-Go-Round” is a poem about a little colored child that goes to the carnival. The child wants to ride the merry-go-round, but has a problem finding the back. From where the child comes from, Jim Crow laws segregate the blacks from the whites. This poem has a lot of depth and meaning, although it sounds very simple. It also tells us the mindset of most blacks in the South in the days of segregation. I chose this poem because the boy’s innocence was touching and its deep meaning was very powerful.

This poem is written from the perspective of an African-American from a foreign country, who has come to America for the promise of equality,

My people is one of Langston Hughes’ poems which is about working class black African American people. In this poem, he compared the beauty of nature to the beauty of his people. My people is a very short poem, built in three stanzas which consist of two lines in each stanza. This poem was written in simple language, therefore, the readers can easily understand what he is trying to convey. I believe, beneath its simple words, this poem depicts the beauty of working class black African American people that go beyond the beauty of physical appearance.

As time has passed humanity still tends to separate each other based on our racial being rather than seeing each other as one human race. Langston Hughes’s, “A New Song,” published in 1938 introduces the idea of a new vision of social relations in American society. Hughes’s original version of this poem written in 1933, does not encompass his growing anger on this subject that is dwelled upon in his published version. However, with Hughes’s powerful tone and word choice throughout his 1938 rendition, his reader is able to understand his urge to transform America into an interracial culture. (Central Idea) His poem voices the importance of transforming society into a multiethnic unity and working-class established through cultural ties between whites and blacks. (Thesis) Hughes voices this crucial need to change through his emphasis on African American’s past struggles as opposed to the new dream, his militant tone, and through expressing the role that the establishment of cultural ties plays in society.

The term “Jim Crow” originally referred to a black character in an old story and was the name of a popular dance in the 1820s. Thomas “Daddy” Rice created a routine in which he blacked his face, wore old clothes and sang and dance in an imitation of an old and decrepit black man. In the song, Rice published the words to the song, “Jump, Jim Crow,” in 1830. An example of the Jim Crow law is the Montgomery bus operators. They were supposed to separate their coaches into two sections: whites were up front, and the blacks were in the back. The white section had comfortable seats, while black’s seats were hard and not as comfortable as the white passenger’s seats. The U.S. military allowed African Americans to participate in World War II. (u-s-history.com)

Jim Crow was not a person, yet affected the lives of many. Originally named after a 19th-century minstrel song that harshly stereotyped African Americans, Jim Crow laws were in place from around 1880 to the 1960s. Though this idea of separation may be hard to understand in today’s society, it was very relevant and thrived in America for a good eighty years! These laws and practices in the South were very successful because they were sanctioned by the national government ("The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow"). “The actions -- or, more frequently, inactions—of the three branches of the federal government were essential in defining the lifespan of Jim Crow” ("The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow"). From this support spurred extreme support from racial groups directed by white clergymen. One group, called the Klu Klux Klan—KKK for short—practiced cross burning and defacement of property in order to ridicule African-Americans. As hard to believe as it is, it “continues today

The poem “Let America Be America Again,” by Langston Hughes, brings up two sides to the discussion about what America means to people. It discusses the fact that to some people, America is an amazing land, where people are free from oppression and have rights. The poem, however, does not neglect the fact that there are people who have never experienced those freedoms and rights, nor does it neglect the fact that the people who have not experienced those rights also live in America. The issue about people living in America but never experiencing rights that are thought to be American was very prominent at the time that Hughes wrote the poem. Now the discussion is not “what it means to live in America” but “what it means to love America.” The issue contemplates whether someone can love America and still notice its flaws; or, if in order to love America one must neglect its ugly truths and only focus on the great accomplishments. One of the main causes for this discussion derive from the fact that right-winged people claim that Obama does not love America. However, they fail to see that in order to love something you must also notice its flaws and fix them.

Compared to Langston Hughes, how are e.e. cummings’s thoughts about dreams different? Langston Hughes and e.e. cumming’s both wrote a powerful poem about dreams, although they both have the same topic they appear to be different in meaning. I believe that in Hughes poem he was addressing that dreams are what makes you who you are, however in cummings poem it seemed like dreams allow you to be who you want to be. Langston Hughes wrote the poem, Dreams, to tell the reader to hold onto your dreams, even when things in life can get hard, because without them, your life would be incomplete. e.e. cummings’s poem, Dive for Dreams, has a different approach. This piece of poetry is a way to get the reader motivated, to inspire them, and give them

The denomination for the Jim Crow Laws first originated in the mid 1800s from a character in a Minstrel Show. The Minstrel Show was one of the first forms of American regalement ever engendered and took place in 1843. The exhibition was performed by successors of African American musical composition and dance routine actors. The first Minstrel Show was in Virginia and commenced by a group of four men from Virginia who all painted their faces ebony and performed a minute musical composition and dance skit in a minute theater in Incipient York City. Thomas Dartmouth Rice, a white actor, performed the Jim Crow Minstrel Show. Rice’s inspiration emanated from an older ebony man whom would sing and dance in Louisville, Kentucky. Rice’s skit ended in the same chorus as the old ebony mans musical composition which went like this "Wheel about and turn about and do jis so, Eb"ry time I

Throughout Langston Hughes' novel, Not Without Laughter, the author introduces multiple characters that reveal their notions of prejudice. The novel explores that prejudice in one form or another is in every aspect of one's life. Prejudice can be defined as an opinion for or against a person's look, race, class, or religion, which is usually formed by a hasty generalization. Most of the main characters, Aunt Hager, Sister Johnson, Jimboy, Harriet, and Tempy contain different accounts of prejudice in the world, which stimulate many of Sandy's thoughts of life as he comes of age. Aunt Hager, Annjee, Harriet, and Sandy, are a multi-generation poor African American family that live in a small home together but are eventually divided by multiple circumstances. The story takes place during the 1910s in the small town of Stanton, Kansas.

Firstly, the origin of the phrase “Jim Crow” was attributed to “Jump Jim Crow”, a song-and-dance caricature of blacks performed by white actor Thomas D. Rice. (Woodward, C. P.7) Then, “Jim Crow” by 1838 became a derogatory expression meaning for “Negro.” The original history of Jim Crow Laws need to be traced to the Reconstruction Period of 1865-1877. At that time, federal law provided African Americans who were former slaves with civil rights in the South of the United States. In the 1870s, Democrats regained power in the southern legislatures and used insurgent paramilitary groups to harass Republican organization and prohibit blacks from voting. In 1877, southern white democrats governments legislated Jim Crow Laws which officially segregated blacks from white people. These laws of racial segregation which passed by southern legislatures were recognized as Jim Crow

All three of the poems discussed in this essay relate to the struggles suffered by African Americans in the late 18th century to the early 19th century in many different ways. They had to live under harsh

L. Hughes’ short story ‘Passing’ is driven by the conflict between the morals of having to behave like a white man and being African American by birth. The main character has a conflicting identity. ‘William Faulkner reminds us that in addition to a conflict of wills, fiction also shows “the heart in conflict with itself”’ (Burroway, J. 2011 pg. 249). This is particularly evident when the narrator, Jack says, ‘that’s the kind of thing that makes passing hard, having to deny your own family when you see them…you and I both realise it is all for the best, but anyhow it’s terrible’ (Hughes 1971 pg. 51). The main character is seen to although understand the privilege he has, also feel guilty about ignoring who he is by birth. David Lodge describes ‘…The beginning of a novel is a threshold, separating the real world we inhabit from the world the novelist has imagined. It should therefore… “Draw

“The Harlem Renaissance was a time where the Afro-American came of age; he became self-assertive and racially conscious… he proclaimed himself to be a man and deserving respect. Those Afro-Americans who were part of that time period saw themselves as principals in that moment of transformation from old to new” (Huggins 3). African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers to seek better lives than in the South as the northern economy was booming and industrial jobs were numerous. This movement brought new ideas and talents that shifted the culture forever. Black writers, such as Langston Hughes, used their work to claim a place for themselves and to demand self-respect in society. Poems that Langston Hughes wrote captured the essence of the complexity of a life that mixes joy and frustration of black American life through the incorporation of jazz and blues in order to examine the paradox of being black in mostly white America, the land of the not quite free.