Langston Hughes

"Sure, call me any ugly name you choose — The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the peoples lives, We must take back our land again, America!"

"My motto, As I live and learn, is: Dig And Be Dug In Return."

"Good evening, daddy I know you’ve heard The boogie-woogie rumble Of a dream deferred"

"Ive known rivers: Ive known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers."

"For poems are like rainbows; they escape you quickly."

"Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love. I like to work, read, learn, and understand life. I like a pipe for a Christmas present, or records — Bessie, bop, or Bach. I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races."

"Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers, The mountains and the endless plain — All, all the stretch of these great green states — And make America again!"

"Why should it be my loneliness, Why should it be my song, Why should it be my dream deferred overlong?"

"Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed — Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above."

"I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slaverys scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek — And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak."

"What happens to a dream deferred? Daddy, ain’t you heard?"

"Theyll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed — I, too, am America."