Langston Hughes

I saved the best for last! My favorite readings this week were the Langston Hughes poems. Like the other authors we are studying, Hughes uses his poetry to speak out against the racial problems in America. I liked reading “Park Bench” because he also highlights issues of the wealthy vs. poor in society. According to the text: “He wrote some of America’s most telling indictments of racism, but also reached out to the poor of all ethnic backgrounds. And he was one of the few male poets of his generation that could write persuasively both about women and within a female persona” (503). So, his interest was in solving a myriad of social problems in this country.