A Summary and Analysis of Langston Hughes’ ‘Let America Be America Again’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘Let America Be America Again’ is a 1938 poem by Langston Hughes (1901-67), a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. In the poem, Hughes contrasts the American Dream with the less glorious reality of Depression-era America, a land where many people are poor and social inequality is rife.

One of the striking things about ‘Let America Be America Again’ is that Hughes balances his portrayal of this rather depressing truth about America with a more hopeful vision of a future America where the ‘dream’ can be realised. This is a protest poem, but one which is simultaneously negative and optimistic.

Summary

In the first stanza of the poem, Hughes urges for his fellow Americans to ‘let America be America again’: to restore the American Dream and make the country a land of opportunity where anyone, regardless of their background, could pursue ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ (as the Declaration of Independence put it).

America, Hughes tells us, never felt ‘like America’ to him, because of his African-American heritage and the racism and discrimination he has faced. (This is a common theme in Langston Hughes’ poetry.) But it has also never ‘felt’ like the ideal of America that he has read and heard about: that romantic notion that America is a place of possibility and liberty, where pioneers could seek their fortune on the plains.

Hughes longs for America to live up to the ideal those ‘dreamers’ – he is probably referring to the Founding Fathers such as Thomas Jefferson, who authored the Declaration of Independence – had created: a land free from dishonest and scheming rulers where nobody is ‘crushed’ by those who rule over them.

‘O, let my land …’

Hughes wants America to be a land of ‘Liberty’, the capital ‘L’ recalling not only the Statue of Liberty, unveiled in 1886, but also the idea of ‘Liberty’ as it is laid out in the Declaration of Independence. Rather than merely talking about ‘Liberty’ as a vague patriotic nod to America’s past, however, this liberty needs to be realised and enacted, through guaranteeing everyone freedom and equality.

Hughes points out how easy this is to achieve: equality can be as natural as ‘the air we breathe’. The implication is clear: inequality is unnatural and invented by man to keep his fellow man down. Hughes points out that although America is the ‘Land of the Free’ (in the words of the national anthem), it has never been free for Hughes, as an African American.

‘Say, who are you … ’

These two lines – which are italicised, perhaps to suggest a different speaker – appear to shift the voice of the poem from Hughes himself to some other speaker, demanding who he is to ‘mumble’ these words in the darkness, like someone heckling a performer on stage from the darkness of the auditorium. Why mumble discontentedly about how far America falls short of its ideals, and be so negative about everything, like someone covering up the stars (a common Romantic image) with a dark veil?

‘I am the poor white …’

The voice which responds to this accusatory question is, in fact, a medley of voices: poor white people who have been tricked by the promise of prosperity; the Black American still living in the aftermath of slavery, and suffering as a result.

The ‘red man’ (Native American) has been driven off his own land, and the immigrant who arrives at this land of opportunity finds that ‘hope’ is all (s)he has, since the reality of America is the strong crushing (that word again) the weak, and each man out for himself.

‘I am the young man …’

In the next two stanzas, the young man, also filled with hope, finds that the whole country is governed by the same grasping, greedy mindset. And the farmer working the soil and the factory worker slaving away at the machine are no better off either. And the Black American is there to act as ‘servant’ to all of these white Americans.

‘Yet I’m the one …’

Hughes then recalls the ‘Old World’ (Europe, England, Africa) where he, or his ancestors, lived as serfs in bondage to kings. The dream of coming to America to escape such serfdom is what fuelled the early settlers who came to the New World and built a land of opportunity and freedom – or that was the plan, at least.

Who can even call America the land of ‘the free’ when so many are now reliant on poor relief and handouts, and many are shot down when they dare to go on strike for better wages and working conditions? America makes a show of being patriotic – hanging up the American flag and singing the national anthem – but it’s a hollow sham, when the reality is so far from the dream.

‘O, let America be America again …’

Hughes’ speaker returns to his plea to ‘let America be America again’. America remains an idea rather than a reality as long as it fails to make good on the promise of the American dream. The land belongs to everyone – poor men, Native Americans, African Americans – who helped to build this new country. It is up to the people to restore the ‘mighty dream’ of what America could be and help the nation to realise its potential.

‘Sure, call me any ugly name …’

In an arresting image, Hughes’ speaker talks of freedom being made of ‘steel’: tough, enduring, stainless. The ideal is one that ordinary Americans will continue to cling to and try to make reality with an iron resolve (to mix our metal metaphors). Although America never has realised its potential for the speaker, it will do if everyone believes in it enough and makes it so.

‘Out of the rack …’

The poem concludes with the speaker encouraging his fellow Americans to lift the country out of its current state and to ‘redeem’ the land, restoring it to its full potential.

Analysis

‘Let America Be America Again’ uses the same free-verse, jazz- and blues-influenced rhythms which Hughes had used in his earlier poetry from the 1920s. By the time this poem was published in 1938, America had endured nearly a decade of economic hardship and poverty following the Wall Street Crash of 1929. The Great Depression had exacerbated existing inequalities between Americans.

We reveal in our pick of facts about Langston Hughes that he had sympathies with Communists: around the time he wrote ‘Let America Be America Again’ he also penned a number of journalistic pieces in support of the Republican cause during the Spanish Civil War.

He also expressed sympathy for American Communists, and wrote a poem, ‘Good Morning Revolution’ (1932), in support of Communist revolution in the US. (It’s for this reason that in 1953, Hughes found himself testifying before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s infamous committee investigating ‘Un-American’ activities.)

So, can we regard ‘Let America Be America Again’ as a Communist poem? Perhaps not simply because Hughes calls for social equality, although the poem does seem to call for a socialist ‘dream’ to be made real. He calls on the people to work together to iron out inequalities between Americans and lift people out of poverty.

At the same time, of course, the American Dream is, at least in part, a capitalist dream: it is the freedom of individuals to pursue life, liberty – and money. But Hughes does appear to want Americans to share their wealth around to ensure that ordinary people – the workers, the immigrants, the native Americans, and Hughes’ fellow African Americans who are held back by the legacy of slavery – have a share of the dream, too.