Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed

Published 2:58 p.m. today

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 aspirational 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 literary skills 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 seven million 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 exactly 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 was an historic day I will never forget, and I'm so grateful I took part in.

But I also thought about Langston Hughes (1901-1967), and what he would be inspired to write today 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 "left-wing radicals 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, or brazen images of himself wearing a crown.

To express their dismay that tens of thousands of federal employees have been senselessly terminated from their jobs in a foolish government shutdown, many forced to stand on food pantry lines, not knowing where their next dollar to feed their families or pay their mortgages is coming from. The president, however, seems to care less.

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. As an African-American, as shocking as this episode is, it is not surprising.

To express their dismay that masked federal agents from 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 illegally redrawing their congressional voting districts to give Republicans more of an advantage going into the 2026 midterm elections.

And have you seen this extraordinarily sick A.I. video of the president, wearing a crown, flying a U.S. Air Force bomber jet over peaceful No Kings demonstrators... American citizens... seemingly dropping tons of human excrement on them? That disgusting, despicable A.I. video was issued from the White House account, meaning it was paid for by taxpayers. If you haven't seen it...it is astonishing how demented it is!

Sycophant Republicans like House Speaker Mike "MAGA Mouse" Johnson actually defended the president's A.I. video as "satire to make a point" If so, it is truly sick satire.

All of the above disruptions to our democracy are just some of what has 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,