Langston Hughes Harlem Renaissance

The identity of the African has changed through each century since the first slaves were ripped from their native soil and brought to the gloomy shores of America. It began as lower than animals; not even being considered a human but, a possession unworthy of life unless privileged by their masters. Then, the eyes of the law considered them three fifths of a person not due to a change of heart, but because the slave population began to outnumber that of the whites. Next, the new freed African American were forced to jump head first into a society that refused to embrace them. It was not until the 1920s that the Negro established a sanctuary; a cultural safe haven in the busy streets of Harlem New York. The “Harlem Renaissance” was a creative

Hughes was a product of a mixed union that of a poor black mother and a rich white father (Meyer). Although he can from too different backgrounds, Hughes chose to embrace his African American heritage. In a review of Langston Hughes’s poem, Donald B. Gibson states that Hughes had an “new contemporary audience” that “ recognized Hughes as someone who speaks for African Americans and someone whose work and career formed a basis for pride…”(Gibson). Comparatively, Langston Hughes experienced a different but very similar form of being an outcast as Claude McKay; not only was he an outcast in America, but also among his own due to his mixed

He directly plays off of the symbol of the Black sheep; the outcast among sheep because all other sheep are white but it is still a sheep nonetheless. This sheep that is sent “…to eat in the kitchen/ When company comes…” (Hughes). It is still apart of heard but treated differently. This would make a strong connection with his readers during the Harlem renaissance because this line is a great example of why the movement in Harlem event took place. Blacks wanted to flee the outcast lifestyle that many were born into while in the south. African Americans created a place where they were amongst themselves and everyone was free to express themselves; free of fear and judgment from the heard of white sheep. On the other hand, Hughes continues on to the second stanza by saying “Tomorrow, / I’ll be at the table” (Hughes). He is speaks in anticipation of a day in age, a new tomorrow, where he will no longer be made to feel like an outcast at his own table. He speaks this into existence decades before future leaders such martin Luther King Jr. came about to bring change during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It was the little seeds such as this poem that slowly built up a generation that truly believed that America will accept the black race and see them as equal; “They’ll see