Minorities In The 1950's

The 1950s was a gilded age; although it was a time of cultural changes and entertainment for most people, it was a harsh life for minorities. At this time, African Americans and Women were the most discriminated minorities. Anne Sexton, a female poet from the 1950s, and Langston Hughes, an African American poet, were both minorities that communicated the thoughts of the minorities to which they were categorized to. Anne Sexton and Langston Hughes proposed the issues that their minority had with their social status.

Women in the 1950s had many different issues they could not communicate. In the 1950s, women were not satisfied with their role as a household wife. In the poem, “My Dreams, My Works, Must Wait Till After Hell” by Gwendolyn Brooks, it explains how her roles as a housewife suppresses her emotions and dreams, Brooks

In most places, African Americans were segregated in the 1950s. Langston Hughes poem, “Merry-Go-Round”, is about an African American child visiting a merry-go-round during the 1950s. Langston Hughes writes, “Where is the Jim Crow section / On this merry-go-round”, this means that the kid going to the merry-go-round is surprised by the absence of a segregated area for African Americans. This comes to show that segregated areas were so often that it was surprising not to see one and that a segregated section had lower quality proposing a struggle for African Americans. In another Langston Hughes poem, “As I Grow Older”, it explains how his dreams fading away as he grows older. He writes, “The wall. / Shadow. / I am black. / I lie down in the shadow.”, attempting to communicate his point about how his unfair treatment as an African American, makes it harder to achieve his dreams. A major part of these struggles are having the segregated, lower quality life. Overall, segregation was a major addition to the difficulty of making a good life as an African American in the