<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><a data-v-04ebda51="" href="https://poets.org/poem/let-america-be-america-again" class="text-dark" target="_self" style="caret-color: rgb(52, 52, 52); font-family: "Poets Electra", Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 1.75rem; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(30, 30, 30, 0); -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(52, 52, 52) !important;">Let America Be America Again</a><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>by Langston Hughes</div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">Let America be America again.<br>Let it be the dream it used to be.<br>Let it be the pioneer on the plain<br>Seeking a home where he himself is free.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">(America never was America to me.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—<br>Let it be that great strong land of love<br>Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme<br>That any man be crushed by one above.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">(It never was America to me.)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">O, let my land be a land where Liberty<br>Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,<br>But opportunity is real, and life is free,<br>Equality is in the air we breathe.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">(There’s never been equality for me,<br>Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><i><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?</span></i><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br><i>And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><i><br></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,<br>I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.<br>I am the red man driven from the land,<br>I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—<br>And finding only the same old stupid plan<br>Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">I am the young man, full of strength and hope,<br>Tangled in that ancient endless chain<br>Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!<br>Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!<br>Of work the men! Of take the pay!<br>Of owning everything for one’s own greed!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.<br>I am the worker sold to the machine.<br>I am the Negro, servant to you all.<br>I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—<br>Hungry yet today despite the dream.<br>Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!<br>I am the man who never got ahead,<br>The poorest worker bartered through the years.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream<br>In the Old World while still a serf of kings,<br>Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,<br>That even yet its mighty daring sings<br>In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned<br>That’s made America the land it has become.<br>O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas<br>In search of what I meant to be my home—<br>For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,<br>And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,<br>And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came<br>To build a “homeland of the free.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">The free?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">Who said the free? Not me?<br>Surely not me? The millions on relief today?<br>The millions shot down when we strike?<br>The millions who have nothing for our pay?<br>For all the dreams we’ve dreamed<br>And all the songs we’ve sung<br>And all the hopes we’ve held<br>And all the flags we’ve hung,<br>The millions who have nothing for our pay—</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br>Except the dream that’s almost dead today.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">O, let America be America again—<br>The land that never has been yet—<br>And yet must be—the land where <i>every</i> man is free.<br>The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—<br>Who made America,<br>Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,<br>Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,<br>Must bring back our mighty dream again.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—<br>The steel of freedom does not stain.<br>From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,<br>We must take back our land again,<br>America!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">O, yes,<br>I say it plain,<br>America never was America to me,<br>And yet I swear this oath—<br>America will be!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(52, 52, 52);">Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,<br>The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,<br>We, the people, must redeem<br>The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.<br>The mountains and the endless plain—<br>All, all the stretch of these great green states—<br>And make America again!<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><br></div>————————————————-<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">http://www.MoscowCares.net</span></div><div><br></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div><div>“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”</div><div>- Roy E. Stolworthy</div><div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>