Langston Hughes (1902-1967) published this famous poem in his 1926 collection called "The Weary Blues." The poem refers to the rivers of African American history, from the Nile and the Congo to the Mississippi, and compares them with the soul of the poet: "My soul has grown deep like the rivers."
Another beloved poem by Hughes is the very short lyric "My People," which confounds racial stereotyping by praising the distinctive beauty of the faces, eyes, and souls of his people. Hughes went on to write a series of novels, beginning with the prize-winning "Not Without Laughter," as well as plays and nonfiction works about the African American experience.
This famous 1919 poem by the Harlem-based Jamaican American poet Claude McKay (1889-1948) protested against a background of race riots. The eloquent poem advocates a noble death in struggle, if death is necessary, calling on his people to die not like hogs or dogs, but "pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!" McKay also wrote novels, including "Home to Harlem" (1928).
Countee Cullen (1903-1946) upheld the romantic heritage of English poetry, resisting the encroachment of modern influences like jazz, yet dealt powerfully with racial themes in poems like "Black Christ," the story of a lynching victim who returns to life to speak of his ordeal. Cullen died suddently from illness at the age of 42.
"Cane" (1923), a short book by Jean Toomer (1894-1967), seamlessly blends prose and short verse to offer a symbolic picture of African American life, from the cotton fields to the big cities. Brief outbursts of modernist poetry highlight urban life: "Ballooned zooming Cadillacs / Whizzing, whizzing down the street-car tracks."