Should America Be America Again By Langston Hughes: Poem Analysis

“Jim Crow Laws were statues and ordinances established between 1874 and 1975 to separate the white and black races in the American south,” (U.S. History). The origin of Jim Crow Laws came from a song a black man once sang that was called “Jump Jim Crow”. This became a minstrel show performed by white men who used a very offensive black face. Black face is when a non colored person would color their faces black with a form of face paint or makeup to represent themselves as a black man and the name Jim Crow became the title of the event. “The term came to be a derogatory epithet for African Americans and designation for their segregated life,” (Urofsky Jim Crow Law ). Said by DR.David Pilgrim “ African Americans were relegated to the status of second class citizens”. The Jim Crow Laws were a physical separation between whites and colored people because whites were considered to be the ‘chosen people’. For example, in a photo from the Library of Congress in the shape of an arrow is a sign pointing to display that there is separate waiting room for those colored , so whites could wait in their own room. It was these type of signs that constantly reminded blacks of the racial order. All sort of things like hospitals, prisons, and schools were all made to a quality less than the whites had to demonstrate the African Americans inferior status. Jim Crow Laws that continued this chain of separation were, blacks could not eat at white restaurants, a black male could not shake hands with a white man or have any relations with white women. These laws allowed whites to be able to beat and punish those who disobeyed them, and it was that which led to the hundreds of race riots and lynchings of African

The Jim Crow Laws authorized legal punishment for interacting with the opposite race. This led to treatment and areas that were almost always inferior to the whites. “Jim Crow” originally referred to a popular dance from the 1820s, and referred to a black man in an old song. Theologians and Christian ministers taught that whites were the “Chosen people”, God support racial segregation and blacks were cursed to be servants (Hansen 1). Jim Crow Laws legalized segregation between blacks and whites to create “separate but equal”, but this had a more negative than positive outcome.

Al Sharpton radio host, and minister once said, “We have defeated Jim Crow, but now we have to deal with his son, James Crow Jr., esquire.” (cite) He then goes on to say that his “son” is smarter, slicker, and more cunning than him. This metaphor describes that even though the Jim Crow Laws have been ratified, there is a new racial discrimination in America that is growing and is harder to defeat than the last. The Jim Crow Laws were the set of laws that set the whites and blacks separate from each other in the 1900s, although they have been defeated, America today may be equal lawfully but not on an individual level. With the beginning of the Jim Crow Laws in the 1900s to their abolishment in 1965, and even today, America has yet to resolve the issue of “separate but equal.”

The white people down in the south, aka the confederate states, were the people who had started the “Jim Crow Laws” because they’re racist and wanted power over the black people. They also made it hard for black people to vote and do things. They weren’t in control of black people but they were bossing them around. Black people also didn’t get enough freedom, as the white people separated them. Blacks got old stuff, whites got new stuff. The Jim Crow Laws are laws made in the south, based on race. It created a “separate but equal” from white people and black people. White people used black people as slaves and now that their “slaves” are equal to them, white people made the Jim Crow Laws so that they will still be more superior to blacks. Water

The Civil Rights Movement started in 1954 and continued until 1968. The Civil Rights Movement was a strive for the rights and the freedoms that African Americans had been given, but taken away from by things such as the Jim Crow Laws and segregation. The Civil Rights Movement had goals of gaining equal rights but also making the fundamental documents that America had been constructed upon to be true for everyone in America. These fundamental documents include the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. With the want of these goals comes about change, an impact, and a response, and the Civil Rights Movement impacted America by gaining the civil rights for African Americans, starting the integration of schools, and also bringing

Langston Hughes uses images of oppression to reveal a deeper truth about the way minorities have been treated in America. He uses his poems to bring into question some of Walt Whitman’s poems that indirectly state that all things are great, that all persons are one people in America, which Hughes claims is false because of all the racist views and oppression that people face from the people America. This oppression is then used to keep the minorities from

The American dream is described as the “dream of land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity each according to ability or achievement”. In the South, the Reconstruction Era took place officially from 1865-1877. However, events still continued after 1877. As slaves were now free after the civil war, White Northerners, educated Northern Blacks, Newly Freed Slaves, and Yeoman farmers all wanted the same thing–for everyone to be equal. In the Reconstruction Era, African Americans were given many opportunities such as jobs, education, freedom, citizenship and protection of their rights.

America is well known as the land of the free and the home opportunity. Although it is said everyone is equal in every way, that has not always been the case. Langston Hughes is a poet who tried to emphasize the idea of equality among all human beings. Hughes underlined the basis of the American Dream with what is and what should be in the societal era he lived in. In hindsight he believed his poems helped others realize the injustices that all minorities had to face during this era.

The Jim Crow Laws originated from a performance called Jumping Jim Crow, Jim Crow is a minstrel character who sings and dances. The performer is usually a white man with black face paint that acts in a foolish and uneducated way. The author of the song and character created Jim Crow as a stereotype for all blacks. The term became very derogatory and offensive and when the government and states were creating new laws to restrict blacks from their rights they used this name (Sharp, Carson and Bonk). The Jim Crow Laws made a system for segregation using legal laws (Carson and Bonk). The segregation started out as something called the Black Codes, which was similar to the Jim Crow Laws but was not as enforced. The Jim Crow Laws were later created and enforced throughout the United States, mostly in the south. The Black Laws made it easier for police to arrest blacks, but the Jim Crow Laws created segregation in everyday life. Blacks did not have the full privilege of an American citizen until a century after the civil war ended (Sharp). The Jim Crow laws kept African Americans from exercising their rights guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment through legal segregation, targeting and blaming blacks for

Jim Crow laws are about power. Power of one race over another. These laws that had happened showed the weakness and over power that each different race had. In this essay it will highlight the beneficial of the importance to how jim crow law shows unfairness between both race.

The Jim Crow laws weren’t originally named the Jim Crow laws in the reconstruction era (1865-1877) when they were first passed. They were started to called that by the actor named Jim Crow who was a white man who blacked his face and he danced around and sang about not having a care in the world. The Reconstruction era was the period of time after the civil war after the north triumphed over the south. Things weren’t a smooth transition for the people of the south with many people staying as racists and the creation of hate groups and deadly gangs such as the Ku Klux Klan were rampant after the northern soldiers left the south when reconstruction was over. The treatment of the innocent black people was unfair and unjust. Reconstruction wasn’t

The Jim Crow laws were unfair and unjust to all African-Americans by making them unequal. The Jim Crow laws are laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States. It used the term separate but equal, even though conditions for African Americans were always worst than their white counterparts. They could not eat at the same restaurant as white people, they could not used the same restrooms, and they couldn't even use the same drinking fountain. Their schools and buildings were severely underfunded and not properly maintained. Blacks could not socialize with white people in public or they risked being arrested. “A black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a white male because it

The second speaker also reshapes the first two lines of the entire poem into a plea to the majority. Beforehand, the first speaker uses those lines as a call for the old American spirit to be revived: “Let America be America again / Let it be the dream it used to be” (1-2). Both speakers change the meaning of the lines to express their thoughts on America. As a result, the poem expresses the desire for everyone to be treated equally in the land of freedom. The readers can relate to the speaker because they wish that everyone has equal rights in the country that proclaims itself to be the symbol of freedom. And they can also relate to the fighting spirit that the second speaker has to make the majority recognize the hard work and determination of the minority especially

If you’re a fan of baseball, in America or anywhere else in the world, you’ve heard the name Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson became a hero by overcoming racial barriers in American Baseball, therefore leading to the decline of the negro leagues, thus impacting our world today.