#Americans #Blacks
What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore— And then run?
You say I O.K.ed LONG DISTANCE? O.K.ed it when? My goodness, Central That was then!
From Christ to Ghandi Appears this truth— St. Francis of Assisi Proves it, too: Goodness becomes grandeur
Good morning, daddy! Ain’t you heard The boogie—woogie rumble Of a dream deferred? Listen closely:
The census man, The day he came round, Wanted my name To put it down. I said, Johnson,
You sicken me with lies, With truthful lies. And with your pious faces. And your wide, out—stretched, mock—welcome, Christian hands.
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… (America never was America to me.…
He glides so swiftly Back into the grass— Gives me the courtesy of road To let me pass, That I am half ashamed
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, Rocking back and forth to a mellow… I heard a Negro play. Down on Lenox Avenue the other ni… By the pale dull pallor of an old…
Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams
Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear. I have as much right
Because my mouth Is wide with laughter And my throat Is deep with song, You do not think
That Justice is a blind goddess Is a thing to which we black are w… Her bandage hides two festering so… That once perhaps were eyes.
How quiet It is in this sick room Where on the bed A silent woman lies between two lo… Life and Death,
I worked for a woman, She wasn’t mean— But she had a twelve—room House to clean. Had to get breakfast,
