How do you define unjust? Would having a different bathroom than whites count? What about sitting in colored seats at the back of the bus-and giving up your seat for a white passenger who came a bit late? How does that sound to you? The poem written by Langston Hughes may have reflected upon the dark time where Jim Crow ruled the towns-twisting the ways of life into a biased world. Reading through the lines of Langston’s poem may have implied something about this time.
To begin, during the time of Jim Crow, death was apparent even in a nonviolent revolution. What if Langston Hughes was writing about a deceased loved one, dating back into the Jim Crow’s time. "Even in a nonviolent revolution by blacks, police officials took the "non" from the "nonviolent revolution" and killed people anyway." The poem could have showed that officials in Jim Crow’s time didn’t care for the blacks at all. "Liberty is a word that makes me want to cry" a quote from Langston’s poem himself. Could this mean something about the troubles and brutal torture in Jim Crow’s time?
Adding on to this, whatever happened to liberty? I would never call Jim Crow’s time the peak of liberty for blacks-never. Blacks were being treated unlawfully during this time, and how were they punished for breaking a policy? Most the time it ended in death! "A fourteen year old son whistled or spoke to a white man’s white wife. He died." Can you imagine the mother’s horror? Can you imagine being beaten to death after you bought silly purchase of candy? A child’s death is every mother’s worst nightmare-it doesn’t even matter if they are black or white.
As well, everything in the time of Jim Crow was segregated. Blacks and whites were buried away from each other, blacks now overgrown with woods probably purposely planted, while white cemeteries were neatly trimmed and "more valuable" Langston Hughes doesn’t think that way! He understands about many things about this bad Jim Crow time and it states that in his poem. "Words like liberty want to make me cry. If you knew what I had known, you would know why" I wonder what time of injustice stirred this poem up in Langston Hughes.
Did you learn something? Then, this essay’s work is done here. In most ways it would be horrible for Jim Crow’s officials to still be here, but what if I could make a difference? Maybe this essay would have helped things move along to the greater for the blacks-but if it didn’t, we’d be in trouble, wouldn’t we?
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