Black like the depths of my Africa.....

The collected poems of Langstone Hughes are still of great significance.....



Negro


I am a Negro:
Black as the night is black,
Black like the depths of my Africa.



I've been a slave:
Caesar told me to keep his door-steps clean.
I brushed the boots of Washington.



I've been a worker:
Under my hand the pyramids arose.
I made mortar for the Woolworth Building.



I've been a singer:
All the way from Africa to Georgia
I carried my sorrow songs.
I made ragtime.

I've been a victim:
The Belgians cut off my hands in the Congo.
They lynch me still in Mississippi.



I am a Negro:
Black as the night is black,
Black like the depths of Africa.