Langston Hughes, Poetry and the Dialectics of Minority

Frican Americans' place in the American society has changed over time, so has the focus of African American Literature. The 1770s marked the beginning of African American poetry with the publication of Phyllis Whitley's collection of poems, on various subjects: religion and moral just on arrival in America. It can therefore be assumed that silence on the part of black creativity after this time was due to their dehumanization by whites and not on a deficient black creativity. The educated white men assumed that the blacks could not express themselves, talk less of writing poetry. They declared them only fit for slavery, to be exploited, and to be servants of their supposed superiors in America and the rest of the world. In their writings, African American writers sought to resurrect their lost identity. Poetry thus became one of the mirrors through which the plight of the masses, their sufferings and their sorrow was projected. Langston Hughes is one of the key figures of this resurrection of the already dehumanised identity of the Blackman. His poetry delves into the dialectics of minority communities by not only portraying their plight, but also showing their potential and then writing to inscribe a new selfhood to the African American minority in the United States of America.