Let America be America again

Let America Be America Again is a poem by Langston Hughes used by United States senator John Kerry in his 2004 presidential campaign.

Related Topics:
Poem - Langston Hughes - United States - Senator - John Kerry - 2004 presidential campaign

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Let America be America again.

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Let it be the dream it used to be.

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Let it be the pioneer on the plain

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Seeking a home where he himself is free.

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(America never was America to me.)

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Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--

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Let it be that great strong land of love

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Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme

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That any man be crushed by one above.

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(It never was America to me.)

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O, let my land be a land where Liberty

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Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,

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But opportunity is real, and life is free,

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Equality is in the air we breathe.

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(There's never been equality for me,

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Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

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Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?

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And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

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I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,

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I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.

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I am the red man driven from the land,

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I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--

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And finding only the same old stupid plan

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Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

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I am the young man, full of strength and hope,

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Tangled in that ancient endless chain

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Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!

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Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!

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Of work the men! Of take the pay!

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Of owning everything for one's own greed!

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I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.

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I am the worker sold to the machine.

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I am the Negro, servant to you all.

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I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--

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Hungry yet today despite the dream.

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Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!

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I am the man who never got ahead,

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The poorest worker bartered through the years.

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Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream

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In the Old World while still a serf of kings,

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Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,

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That even yet its mighty daring sings

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In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned

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That's made America the land it has become.

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O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas

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In search of what I meant to be my home--

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For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,

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And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,

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And torn from Black Africa's strand I came

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To build a "homeland of the free."

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The free?

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Who said the free? Not me?

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Surely not me? The millions on relief today?

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The millions shot down when we strike?

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The millions who have nothing for our pay?

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For all the dreams we've dreamed

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And all the songs we've sung

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And all the hopes we've held

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And all the flags we've hung,

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The millions who have nothing for our pay--

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Except the dream that's almost dead today.

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O, let America be America again--

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The land that never has been yet--

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And yet must be--the land where every man is free.

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The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--

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Who made America,

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Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,

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Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,

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Must bring back our mighty dream again.

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Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--

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The steel of freedom does not stain.

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From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,

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We must take back our land again,

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America!

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O, yes,

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I say it plain,

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America never was America to me,

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And yet I swear this oath--

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America will be!

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Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,

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The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,

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We, the people, must redeem

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The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.

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The mountains and the endless plain--

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All, all the stretch of these great green states--

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And make America again!

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