How can five typewritten pieces of paper provide a glimpse into the mind of a great writer?
Background
In the 1940s, the poet Langston Hughes was a major author who worked in many different literary forms, from poems and short stories to newspaper columns, essays, and songs. He was also a prominent public figure who
produced commentaries on culture and race relations in the United States—one publisher later called him “the unchallenged spokesman of the American Negro”.
Activities
Teachers can have students:
• Compare the drafts and the final copy to find some of the edits that Hughes made as he revised the poem.
• Speculate about the reasons for the author’s edits. Can students identify any possible shifts in the poem’s attitude towards Booker T. Washington?
• Read an early draft and the final copy out loud. How have Hughes’ edits changed the way the poem sounds?
• Speculate about why Hughes might have written this poem when he did, twenty-five years after Washington’s
death.
More Suggestions