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Justin Chow
English&123
Unit 2 Essay
Revealing African American History in the Works of Langston Hughes: Discriminating
Treatments and Slavery
Part 1: Langston Hughes’ “Aunt Sue’s Stories” and “Negro”
Langston Hughes is best known as the leading poet during the Harlem Renaissance.
People praised him as the spokes-poet for the African American community. His work
enlightened the desires of his fellow black people. Hughes reinvigorated in his people the belief
that it is not just the white man who is American. They were also American, as is every race that
lives in the United States.
However, while most people focus on how Hughes put his writing efforts into the long
journey of race emancipation, a lot of Hughes’ works actually focused on revealing the hidden
truths about African American history. His poems showed the hard times that African
Americans faced when they had to deal with racism, discrimination and abhorrence from
society. These poems that Hughes wrote were aimed at rewriting the story of slavery and
colonization from his perspective. The three centuries of slavery in which African American
people were humiliated and oppressed were the things Hughes wanted to disclose. Hughes’
poems regarding slavery not only redefined African American history, it educated the younger
generation by teaching them about their ancestry. His poems were controversial and criticized
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because they challenged the dominant political views regarding African Americans in the United
States.
As represented in the text book of Hughes’ poem collection, “Aunt Sue’s Stories” (23)
and “Negro” (24) showed how African Americans’ ancestors were being treated during the
period of slavery.
Langston Hughes’ poem “Aunt Sue’s Stories” presents the history of how slaves were
treated in the past. The first stanza brings out a warm lovely scene with a child cuddling with his
aunt on the front porch on a summer night (23). The plot then switches from the sweet family
story telling time to a very dim and silent mood. Aunt Sue remembers one of her darkest
memories; she was once a slave who worked under a hot sun (23). Walking in dewy nights with
other slaves mingling sorrow songs together (23) showed how frustrated and depressed they
were during the period. The dark-faced (23) child kept quiet while listening to his aunt because
he knew that she did not pull out those stories from a text (23). They were all real experiences
from her early life. Hughes used this poem to show how he admired his ancestors’ abilities to
overcome these hardships in their lives. In the first stanza of the poem, he was actually the
child who enjoyed listening to stories from his aunt. The story regarding slavery in the second
stanza expressed Hughes’ perspective on retelling African American history. He encouraged
black parents to teach their children with real stories of their ancestors (23) instead of pulling
out fairy tales from a bed time story book. It also showed how eager Hughes was for his people
to learn about the real history of their past.
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Besides showing how black people were being oppressed during slavery, Hughes
discussed the history of the African American people in the poem “Negro” (24). He narrated the
activity and treatment of the black community all the way up to the early 20th century. He
begins with his own identity in the first stanza, calling himself a black Negro (24). He defines his
people as having dark skin, black as night (24) and being from Africa. He then moves on to the
period of slavery. The second stanza describes how African Americans were lower class workers
or even worse, since most of them had been enslaved or been boot cleaners (24). The tones in
the first two stanzas are sad, since it describes the darkest times in their history.
Hughes switched his focus to the achievements of his people in stanzas three and four. He
was very proud that though his people had been humiliated in the past, they were still able to
build pyramids and the Woolworth Building (24). They proved that they had the skills and
strength. They deserved better treatment. His people also invented Jazz music, rooted in music
from Africa and brought by them to Georgia (24). Hughes underlined in these two stanzas that
his people contributed a lot in both the arts and music history while facing difficult times. This
led to Hughes expressing his thoughts in stanza five that his people were unlucky that they had
such potential and intelligence. They were victims (24) who had been treated unfairly. The last
stanza is a rephrase of the first one. Hughes narrated about the history of his people. He is very
proud of his people yet feels disappointed about how they had been treated in the past.
Although they faced fewer hardships now, racism still exists in the community. The two poems
display how Hughes embedded his thoughts on African American history in his poetry.
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Part 2: The Literature Review
A number of literature scholars have discussed how Hughes presented the history of
African Americans in his works. These discussions actually relate to each other as they link
similar poems together while analyzing the poet’s perspective on reconstructing the history of
African Americans. The overview of these articles goes from revealing how African Americans
were enslaved and continued to be discriminated against from the past to the present.
An argument on how Hughes redefined the history of his people was made by
researcher Saddik Mohamed Gohar. His research paper Subverting the History of Slavery and
Colonization in the Poetry of M. Al-Fayturi and Langston Hughes was published in 2008. Gohar
stated that Hughes’ works were aimed to dismantle colonial narratives about Africa and black
people by revising history and rewriting the story of slavery and colonization from the
viewpoint of the colonized and the oppressed (1). His paper also claimed that Hughes' Harlem
Renaissance poetry not only condemns white oppression but also refutes the oppressor's
narratives of inferiority which aimed to banish black people outside human history (1). This
showed that Hughes was challenging the stereotype of African Americans being inferior in
society.
Gohar’s article also discussed how Negroes were not only tortured in the fields but also
suffered from humiliation and violence at the hands of the white police in the South. The poem
“Ku Klux” showed that a black man tried to challenge his oppressors but failed. He was called a
“Nig***” (17) and hit in the head (17) by the cops. Hughes used this poem to seize on the racist
history of the South by underlining the physical violence used by a white man applying his myth
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of superiority over Africans. Hughes was one of the educated African Americans who went
against the oppression of his race. He revealed the brutality of those who wanted to hide and
remove the history of his people. He encouraged his race to study about their ancestors by
learning the genuine history.
Discriminating treatments that African Americans received has been a big part of their
history. A professor named Prashant Subhash Mothe discussed how African Americans were
treated in the poems of Langston Hughes. Her research paper Violation of Human Rights of the
Negro’s in the Poems of Langston Hughes: A Critical Perspective published in 2012 intended to
analyze the negative treatment, such as prejudice, discrimination and racial segregation, that
happened to black people.
Mothe states that Hughes thinks the problem of mixed blood in America is, to be sure, a
minor problem, but a very dramatic one (144). The poem “Merry Go Round” mentions a child
who was not allowed to ride because he was black. “To a merry go round. Where is the horse
for a kid that’s black?” (144) showed the struggle of black people that they even needed
permission from the superior whites before they do certain things. Mothe thought that Hughes
was using this poem as an example of showing his reader about his people’s pain and how cruel
racial segregation was (144).
Scenes of slavery were embedded in Hughes’ poems. It was by far the most sensitive
and controversial topic in American History. Besides the discussion of unfair treatment and
discrimination that was present in Hughes work, Mothe also analyzed how Hughes revealed the
prospect of slavery in his poem “The Negro Mother” (146). Hughes attempted to show the
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painful experience of slavery in the American South through story-telling. The poem was similar
to “Aunt Sue’s Stories,” which was analyzed in the introduction. In the poem, the female
addresses her audience of black children about how she was the one who has labored as a slave
(146). She was mistreated and beaten (146). The slave owners also forced them to sell their
children and husbands (146). Mothe believed that Hughes was revealing these brutal acts in his
work to reveal the truth of the history and bring awareness to white people that they could
never hide what they had done in the past.
Research done by research scholar Dr. Sangita Mehta also discussed how Hughes
showed the hard times of the African American people through racism, discrimination and
segregation. In the article A Tale of Slavery through Hughes’ Poetry, published by International
Refereed Research Journal in 2011, Mehta stated that Hughes also tried his best to give a voice
to their claim. Mehta also used “Merry Go Round” and “Aunt Sue’s Stories” as evidence that
Hughes tried to show his readers about how slavery and racial segregation had damaged their
people’s lives in the past.
Mehta also used “Mother to Son” (213) as an example of how Hughes presented the
hardship of his people thought a conversation between a mother and her son. The mother uses
her experience in life to educate her son about how a black man’s life would be during that
time. She compared life to a journey. It would never be easy as it had tacks in it (213) and
places with no carpet on the floor (213). Mehta believed Hughes wrote these kinds of poems to
let the readers know about the hardship and struggles his people were facing at that time; it
was part of African Americans’ history.
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“Afraid” (214) was also included in Mehta’s research article. He claimed that Hughes
used this poem to present the fear of his people. They were crying in the United States like
their ancestors did in the past because they were afraid to face the cruel world alone. They felt
like they were the only ones who were being treated unfairly. They were frustrated because
there was nothing they could do at that moment. What his people were afraid of is believed to
be the extent to which black Americans were tortured and harassed (214).
To sum up, three of the scholars above have discussed how Hughes not only wrote
about the contemporary struggle of African Americans for racial equality and against
segregation, but also how he presented African American history, especially in regards to
slavery and the supposed inferiority of his race, as a counterpoint to the biased way black
Americans were painted in mainstream history books and lessons. “Merry Go Round” (Mothe
144) discussed how Hughes located racial segregation and unfair treatment towards his people.
“Aunt Sue’s Stories” and “The Negro Mother” (Mothe 146) revealed the history of slavery,
about how their ancestors suffered while being enslaved. “Mother to Son” (Mehta 213) and
“Afraid” (Mehta 214) emphasized Hughes’ perspective on how his people felt frustrated by
dealing with all the hardships in their lives. While writing about the darkest times of African
American history, Hughes also appreciated their heritage and culture. He wanted African
Americans to patronize their own businesses, see beauty in their own race and learn African
history (Mehta 214).
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Review Bibliography:
1. Mothe, Prashant Subhash. "Violation of Human Rights of the Negro's in the Poems of
Langston Hughes: A Critical Perspective." Asia Pacific Journal of Management &
Entrepreneurship Research 1.1 (2012): 143-7. ProQuest. Web. 21 Mar. 2015
2. Mehta, Sangita. "TALE OF SLAVERY THROUGH HUGHES' POETRY." Researchers World 2.1
(2011): 211-4. ProQuest. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.
3. Saddik, Mohamed Gohar. "Confronting the History of Slavery and Colonization in the
Poetry of Mohamed Al-Fayturi and Langston Hughes." Journal of Cultural Studies 8.1-3
(2010): 90-125. ProQuest. Web. 21 Mar. 2015.
Part 3: Further Resources and Readings
1. Calloway, Earl. "Poet Langston Hughes was a Defender Columnist from 1942-1965."
Description: Hughes fiercely fought prejudice, awakened the cultural sophistication of
Blacks, brought a sense of reality to the idiom of Black music and tuned hearts to the
simplicity and awful passion of love. Displayed in his column titled “Simple” for the
Chicago Defender.
2. Cha-Jua, Sundiata. ""Lest Harlem Sees Red": Race and Class Themes in the Poetry of
Langston Hughes, 1920-1942
Description: A detail analysis regarding to Hughes' populist poetry written in the
blues-ballad voice veiled the particularity of racial/national oppression, while
simultaneously illuminating the oppression of the poor.
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3. Daniel Won-gu Kim. ""we, Too, Rise with You": Recovering Langston Hughes's African
(Re) Turn 1954-1960 in an African Treasury, the Chicago Defender, and Black
Orpheus."
Description: The late period of Hughes's work provides a special opportunity to revisit
the historic tensions, divergences, and convergences between the "black" and the
"red"-between class struggle and the struggle for national liberation in
US black prejudices.