Negro by Langston Hughes



Negro by Langston Hughes

The speaker in Langston Hughes' poem "The Negro Speaks of River" delivers his claims in a cosmic voice that extends throughout all time and space. This voice includes all peoples.

Hughes' ancestry included the three major race groups; he lived as an African-American (Hughes referred to himself as "colored" or "Negro," because he was writing before the term "African-American" was accepted widely); his parents were African-Americans. But Hughes' interests far exceeded racial limitations. He embraced all of life. He suffered the color-line, when racism was strong in early twentieth-century America, but he rose above racial ...