I, Too (1925)

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Author: Langston Hughes

Published: 1925

Language: English

"I, Too" is a poem written by Langston Hughes that shows a desire for equality through perseverance while disproving the notion that race restricts patriotism. It was first published in a special issue of the Survey Graphic magazine, Harlem: Mecca of the New Negro, in March 1925. It was later reprinted in 1926 in Hughes' first poetry book, The Weary Blues.

Hughes incorporates the sense of unity that the U.S. has President Abraham Lincoln spoke "by beginning his poem with a near direct reference to Walt Whitman." about the separate and diverse sections of American democracy (the coexistence of slavery and freedom).

Poetry and Summary

The Poem

"I, too, sing America.


I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.


Tomorrow,

I’ll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

“Eat in the kitchen,”

Then.


Besides,

They’ll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed—


I, too, am America.

(Langston Hughes, 2002)[1]

Summary

The poem was published in 1926. It depicts American racism as witnessed by a black man. In the poem, the speaker is refused a literal and metaphorical seat at the table by white people. The speaker argues, however, that he is as much a part of America as white people are, and that the rest of the world will soon accept the beauty and power of black people.

Author Biography

James Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri, to Carrie Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes. Hughes sometimes accompanied his mother as she traveled, having been raised by his maternal grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas, for most of his youth. For a year after the 1915 death of his grandmother. By 1916, his mother, who had remarried, was living with him again. In Lincoln, Illinois, the family settled, where Hughes studied at Central High School.

For the school journal, Hughes started writing high school poetry. He spent a year living with his father in Mexico after graduation, where he wrote poetry and a children's short play, all of which were published in 1921 in the Brownies' Book magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In Crisis, also in 1921, another poem and an essay were published. Hughes then enrolled at New York City's Columbia University, where he experienced campus prejudice.

Particularly in the dormitories; he left after his first year as a consequence. While writing poetry, he worked a number of odd jobs. In 1925, he was working as a busboy at a hotel restaurant when he sent the poet Vachel Lindsay some of his poems. Hughes read in a newspaper the next day that Lindsay had found a poet in the Negro busboy. Hughes was instructed by Lindsay to find a publisher. The same year, Hughes received an Urban League funded poetry award. Hughes was asked by the critic Carl Van Vechten at the award ceremony whether Hughes had enough poems to write a novel. Hughes's first book of poems, which included "I, Too," was published as The Weary Blues in 1926.

Racism Issue

Because of the colour of the skin, the Whites view the Blacks as slaves, not as the people of America. The blacks have darker skin colour, but as in lines 1 and 2 of the poem, they consider the whites to be the brother and the blacks want to be part of America.

"I, too, sing America. // I am the darker brother."(Hughes)

The segregation can be seen in the way that when they want to have their meal, the whites handle the blacks, so they send the blacks into the kitchen. The whites do not want the blacks to have their meal together, so they just accept the other whites to have meal in the dining room together. This does not allow the spirit of the Blacks to be lost. To be healthy enough to have racial quality, they eat well, learn and develop strength.

Reference

  1. C. Ward, David (September 2, 2016). What Langston Hughes’ Powerful Poem “I, Too” Tells Us About America’s Past and Present. SmithSonian Magazine. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  2. "I, Too" by Langston Hughes from the Poetry Foundation.
  3. "I, Too ." Poetry for Students. . Encyclopedia.com. 21 Dec. 2020
  4. Spacey, Andrew (January 10, 2020). Analysis of Poem "I,Too" by Langston Hughes. Owlcation. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
  5. Utama, Fajri Khaimara. 2016. Racial Segregation in Langston Hughes' I, Too.
    1. Hughes,Langston. "I, Too" from The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. Poetry Foundations, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47558/i-too. Accessed 25 Dec 2020.