Let+America+Be+America+Again

 Let it be the dream it used to be.  Let it be the pioneer on the plain  Seeking a home where he himself is free.
 * Let America be America again.

 (America never was America to me.)

 Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--  Let it be that great strong land of love  Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme  That any man be crushed by one above.

 (It never was America to me.)

 O, let my land be a land where Liberty  Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,  But opportunity is real, and life is free,  Equality is in the air we breathe.

 (There's never been equality for me,  Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> I am the red man driven from the land, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek-- <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> And finding only the same old stupid plan <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> I am the young man, full of strength and hope, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Tangled in that ancient endless chain <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land! <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need! <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Of work the men! Of take the pay! <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Of owning everything for one's own greed!

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> I am the worker sold to the machine. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> I am the Negro, servant to you all. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-- <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Hungry yet today despite the dream. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers! <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> I am the man who never got ahead, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> The poorest worker bartered through the years.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> In the Old World while still a serf of kings, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> That even yet its mighty daring sings <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> That's made America the land it has become. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> In search of what I meant to be my home-- || <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> And torn from Black Africa's strand I came <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> To build a "homeland of the free."

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> The free?

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Who said the free? Not me? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Surely not me? The millions on relief today? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> The millions shot down when we strike? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> The millions who have nothing for our pay? <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> For all the dreams we've dreamed <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> And all the songs we've sung <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> And all the hopes we've held <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> And all the flags we've hung, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> The millions who have nothing for our pay-- <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Except the dream that's almost dead today.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> O, let America be America again-- <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> The land that never has been yet-- <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> And yet must be--the land where every man is free. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME-- <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Who made America, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Must bring back our mighty dream again.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Sure, call me any ugly name you choose-- <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> The steel of freedom does not stain. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> We must take back our land again, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> America!

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> O, yes, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> I say it plain, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> America never was America to me, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> And yet I swear this oath-- <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> America will be!

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> We, the people, must redeem <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> The mountains and the endless plain-- <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> All, all the stretch of these great green states-- <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;"> And make America again!

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Langston Hughes ||