African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

Langston Hughes, "I , Too" (1925)

(Editor's Note: In The Weary Blues, this poem is titled "Epilogue')

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well, 
And grow strong.

Tomorrow, 
I'll sit at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
'Eat in the kitchen,' then. 

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed,--

I, too, am America. 


Published in Survey Graphic, March 1925
Also published in The New Negro: an Interpretation, 1925
Also published in The Weary Blues, 1926

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