Review: A People’s History of the United States

“Let America Be America Again”

This is a poem written by Langston Hughes in the middle 1930’s.  This was in “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn.

…… I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,

I am the Negro bearing slavery’s 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 might crush the weak….

O, let America be America again –

The land that never has been yet –

And yet must be – the land where every man is free.

The land that’s mine – the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s,

            ME –

Who made America,

Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,

Must bring back our might dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose –

The steel of freedom does not stain.

From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,

We must take back our land again,

America! ……