For Im the one who left dark Irelands shore,
Except the dream thats almost dead today.
O, yes,
And torn from Black Africas strand I came
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
The land that never has been yet--
America!
I say it plain,
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
To build a "homeland of the free."
The millions shot down when we strike?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Langston Hughes
Who made America,
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
The free?
In search of what I meant to be my home--
The land thats mine--the poor mans, Indians, Negros, ME--
Who said the free? Not me?
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
America never was America to me,
O, Im the man who sailed those early seas
And all the flags weve hung,
Americawill be!
And make America again!
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
We, the people, must redeem
Thats made America the land it has become.
For all the dreams weve dreamed
And Polands plain, and Englands grassy lea,
The mountains and the endless plain--
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
And yet I swear this oath--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
O, let America be America again--
We must take back our land again,
And all the songs weve sung
And all the hopes weve held
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
From those who live like leeches onthe peoples lives,
Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
