I, Too by Langston Hughes (1926)

This poem is shorter than most I’ve shared, but what it accomplishes in its brevity is extraordinary. I had the great pleasure of teaching it to high school juniors as we studied the Harlem Renaissance. It is amazing to me when a work of art is able to bridge the perceived apathy of high school students—and I remember this class in particular being beyond difficult to engage—and Hughes’s work enthralled all 36 of them. Luck and Harlem drew an equally enthusiastic reaction.

I, Too is a response to I Sing the Body Electric by Walt Whitman, a poet Hughes greatly admired. In Body Electric, Whitman uses our physical bodies as metaphor for our place and power in democracy. Here, Hughes reminds us that Black people, too, are part of this body. Then at the end, Hughes takes it further with a switch-up of the verbs that extends his meaning.

Reading it now, nearly a hundred years after its publication, I admire his certainty. But I ache for him that his certain hope has not yet been met. Here is another reminder that today is not so different from yesterday, and we really need to be asking ourselves why the hell not.

Short Stuff:

• Hughes grew up in the mid-west, but he went to Columbia University in New York where he caught the attention of the New York publishing scene. He is best known for being a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance.
• Beyond being a poet, he was also a columnist, essayist, playwright, and novelist.

Topics

freedom; America; equality; overcoming adversity; identity

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I, Too

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.

Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

—Langston Hughes