Langston Hughes—Freedom’s Plow

Childe Hassam, Avenue in the Rain (1907)

America!

Land created in common,

Dream nourished in common,

Keep your hand on the plow! Hold on!

If the house is not yet finished,

Don’t be discouraged, builder!

If the fight is not yet won,

Don’t be weary, soldier!

The plan and the pattern is here,

Woven from the beginning

Into the warp and woof of America:

ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL.

NO MAN IS GOOD ENOUGH

TO GOVERN ANOTHER MAN

WITHOUT HIS CONSENT.

BETTER DIE FREE,

THAN TO LIVE SLAVES.

DEMOCRACY!

To all the enemies of these great words:

We say, NO!…

–Langston Hughes, from “Freedom’s Plow” (read the whole poem here) first published in Opportunity (Apr. 1943), pp. 66-69