LET AMERICA BE THE DREAM
THE DREAMERS DREAMED
By Cash Michaels
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.
(America never was America to me.)
Those are the prophetic words of legendary bard and social activist, Langston Hughes, leader of the Harlem Renaissance. A prolific writer, well-known for his poetry, short stories, plays and novels, Hughes wrote an in-depth weekly column about the civil rights movement in The Chicago Defender.
In short, Langston Hughes was one of America’s best ever.
One of the things that defines a great writer is vision, the ability to look at his/her surroundings, and skillfully illustrate the meaning of life through words.
In Hughes’ case, he was so good at this that even civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. depended on his poetic skill to help define the nation they both loved, but were both deeply concerned about.
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.)
That’s what made one of Langston Hughes’ most famous poems, “Let America be America Again,” so real, so visionary, so contemporary.
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.")
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
When I saw millions of concerned Americans Saturday peacefully taking part in the nationwide “No Kings March and Rally 2” to protest the utter shame and disgrace that is the Trump Administration, I immediately thought of the historic and peaceful Million Man March I proudly took part in 30 years ago on Oct. 16, 1995. Hundreds of thousands of black men, from all over the United States, peacefully came together in the spirit of love and brotherhood to reaffirm our responsibilities to our families, communities and each other to make America a better place.
It’s an historic day I will never forget, and am so grateful I took part in.
But I also thought about Langston Hughes (1901-1967), and what he would be inspired to write he had lived long enough to see what has happened to the America he loved, and would be deeply disappointed in.
Here we have a country that purportedly respects the rule of law, and yet, millions of American citizens felt the urgent need to take to the streets last weekend to express their dismay with the profound absence of that societal standard.
To express their dismay at being publicly called citizens “who hate America” just because they disapprove of the scheming, shameful and deceitful machinations of one political party in particular that bows to the slightest whims of a criminally convicted president who sees himself so much as a king and monarch, he’s shamelessly building huge monuments to himself similar to the French Arc de Triomphe, or a lavish White House ballroom, or Oval Office decorated in gold.
To express their dismay that tens of thousands of federal employees have been senselessly terminated from their jobs in a foolish government shutdown, not knowing where their next dollar to feed their families or pay their mortgages is coming from.
To express their dismay that the highest court in the land - the one that seems to thrive on giving our criminal president more and more power to violate our rule of law with, now seems likely to destroy the bedrock legislation that protected the voting rights of Americans of color who still experience discrimination in their communities and at the polls.
To express their dismay that the vice president of the United States goes out of his way to defend the absolutely racist group chat of a Young Republicans organization where right-wing operatives and future GOP leaders “flippantly” joked about gas chambers, expressed love for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and referred to African-Americans as “watermelon people” and “monkeys,” among other derisive terms.
To express their dismay that masked federal agents for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division are going to people’s homes, schools and work, grabbing them by force and putting them behind bars without their due process rights.
To express their dismay that the president of the United States is illegally sending National Guard troops from red states to blue states supposedly to stop crime, even when top Democratic elected officials in blue states maintain they are not needed.
To express their dismay that at the president’s direction, red and purple states like North Carolina are redrawing their congressional voting districts to give Republicans more of an advantage going into the 2026 midterm elections.
All of the above disruptions to our democracy have happened over the past nine months, and continues to plague the nation unabated.
Langston Hughes wrote his prophetic words “Let America be America Again” in 1935, almost as if he could look ninety years into the future to see America crumbling under the weight of authoritarism.
But there’s one thing Hughes’ words should remind all of us of, and that’s our individual and collective responsibility to make America “…the dream dreamers dreamed.” Millions of people across the fruited plain taking to the streets of big cities and small towns demanding a return to democracy, is just the beginning.
We must actively fight via our political system to return to that democracy that makes America “…the dream the dreamers dreamed.” And we have to get hard-nosed about it. We MUST refuse to accept a nation where a petty would-be king buries our collective history in favor of his own. Or rewrites our laws to protect his interests in lieu of our nation.
And we MUST punish the political party that has given him everything he wants to be all-powerful. These people are elected by the people, but care nothing about them, and serve only the rich. THAT MUST CHANGE!
Those of us who have paid our dues, and sacrificed much so that our country would be the kind of place our children could grow up in and prosper, are shocked that after all of those decades of sacrifice, our nation is in worse shape than ever before. And it genuinely frightens us that it can get worse before it gets better.
That’s why, this week, we look back on the powerful words of Langston Hughes, for direction and inspiration.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!
Let America be America Again (c) 1935 by Langston Hughes
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