Good Morning Revolution: Uncollected Writings of Social Protest 080651308X, 9780806513089

Table of contents :
I. REVOLUTION
Letter to the Academy
Good Morning Revolution
White Man
Revolution
2. MEMO TO NON-WHITE PEOPLES
The Same
The English IO
Johannesburg Mines
Black Workers I
Cubes
Black Seed
White Shadows
Envoy to Africa
Memo to non-White Peoples I
To Certain Negro Leaders
Sunset in Dixie
3. THE RICH AND THE POOR
Rising Waters
Advertisement for the Waldorr-Astoria
Gangsters
4. WAR AND PEACE
Poem to a Dead Soldier
To the Little Fort of San La1aro
Merry Christmas
Broadcast on Ethiopia
Air Raid Over Harlem
5. GOODBYE, CHRIST
To Certain "Brothers
How Thin a Blanket
Tired
God to Hungry Child
Christian Country
Goodbye, Christ
6. THE SAILOR AND THE STEWARD/A Short Story
7. THE MEANING OF SCOTTSBORO
Southern Gentlemen, White Prostitutes
Brown America in Jail
8. COWARDS FROi\1 THE COLLEGES/An Essay
9. PORTRAIT AGAINST BACKGROUND
Moscow and Me
Going South in Russia 7
The Soviet Union
The Soviet Union and Jews
The Soviet Union and Color
The Soviet Union and Women
The Soviet Union and Health
82
84
86
88
Faults of the Soviet Union
Light and the Soviet Union
Lenin
10. DARKNESS IN SPAIN
Too Much of Race
Franco and the Moors
Negroes in Spain
Madrid
Laughter in Madrid
Air Raid: Barcelona
Moonlight in Valencia: Civil War 11 l
Tomorrow's Seed
Hero-International Brigade
11. CHINA
The Revolutionary Armies in China-1949
Roar China
Concerning the Future of Asia
12. THE AMERICAN WRITERS' CONGRESS
To Negro Writers
Democracy and Me
13. RETROSPECTIVE
vi
Concerning Goodbye, Christ
My Adventures as a Social Poet
Langston Hugh es Speaks 14

Citation preview

,angston

Good Morning REVOLUTION

To JEAN-PAUL SARTRE Modern literature's freedom fighter

A world J dream where black or white, Whatever race you be, Will share the bounties of the earth And every man is free. -Langston Hughes

Good Morning REVOLUTION Uncollected Social Protest Writings by

LANGSTON HUGHES Edited and with an introduction by

FAITH BERRY

Foreword by Saunders Redding

LAWRJ·:NCE H11.1.

&

COMI'.\:"\\'

\ \' Jo:STPI IRT

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967. Good morning, revolution. I. Title. PSS515.U274G6 197ll 818'.5'209 75-81747 ISBN 0-88208-02ll-7 ISBN 0-88208-024-5 (pbk.) Copyright 0 197!1 by Faith Berry The selections in this volume are used by permission of the ow1 their respective copyrights and by special arrangement with the Ex and Trustees of the Estate of Langston Hughes, and may not otl be used without their consent. No part of this work may be repr• in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. Certain works in this volume were originally published in more th: periodical. Serial or book sources cited are those which copyrigh first published given selections.

ISBN clothbound edition 0-88208-02ll-7 ISBN paperback edition 0-88208-024-5 Library of Congress catalogue card number: 73-81747 First edition November 1973 Lawrence Hill Be Company, Publishers, Inc. Manufactured in the United States of America

4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 Design by Andrea Marquez

Contents Acknowledgments Foreword ix Introduction xi I.

vii

REVOLUTION Letter to the Academy 3 Good Morning Revolution White Man 5 Revolution 6

3

2.

MEMO TO NON-WHITE PEOPLES The Same 9 The English IO Johannesburg Mines 10 Black Workers II Cubes II Black Seed 12 White Shadows 13 Envoy to Africa 13 Memo to non-White Peoples I3 To Certain Negro Leaders 14 Sunset in Dixie 15

3.

THE RICH AND THE POOR Rising Waters 19 Advertisement for the Waldorr-Astoria Gangsters 22

4.

19

WAR AND PEACE Poem to a Dead Soldier 25 To the Little Fort of San La1aro 25 Merry Christmas 26 Broadcast on Ethiopia 27 Air Raid Over Harlem 28 5. GOODBYE, CHRIST To Certain "Brothers" 35 How Thin a Blanket 35 Tired 36 God to Hungry Child 36 Christian Country 36 Goodbye, Christ 36 6. THE SAILOR AND THE STEWARD/A Short Story

7.

THE MEANING OF SCOTTSBORO Southern Gentlemen, White Prostitutes Brown America in Jail 50

49

8.

COWARDS FROi\1 THE COLLEGES/An Essay

9.

PORTRAIT AGAINST BACKGROUND Moscow and Me 67 Going South in Russia 75 The Soviet Union 80 The Soviet Union and Jews 82 84 The Soviet Union and Color The Soviet Union and Women 86 88 The Soviet Union and Health Faults of the Soviet Union 90 Light and the Soviet Union 92 Lenin 94

10.

11.

DARKNESS IN SPAIN Too Much of Race 97 Franco and the Moors 99 102 Negroes in Spain Madrid 104 Laughter in Madrid 106 Air Raid: Barcelona 110 Moonlight in Valencia: Civil War Tomorrow's Seed 112 Hero-International Brigade 113

11 l

CHINA The Revolutionary Armies in China-1949 Roar China 118 Concerning the Future of Asia 120

12.

THE AMERICAN WRITERS' CONGRESS To Negro Writers 125 Democracy and Me 127

13.

RETROSPECTIVE 133 Concerning Goodbye, Christ 135 My Adventures as a Social Poet Langston Hugh es Speaks 14 3

vi

117

Acknowledgments For materials and helpful assistance during research for this book, grateful acknowledgment is extended to the Library of Congress; Moorland-Spingarn Collection, Howard University Library; The Schomburg Collection, New York Public Library; The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley; the American Institute of Marxist Studies; and the Library an

7 THE MEANING OF SCOTTSBORO The Scottsboro Case, involving nine black youths indicted for allegedly raping two white prostitutes in a railroad freight car in Alabama in 1931, made headlines during the 1930s and resulted in a series of appeals and retrials before indictments against any of the defendants were dropped. Mass support in the United States and abroad for a fair trial and freedom of the Scottsboro boys came from leading intellectuals and writers, including John Dos Passos, Theodore Dreiser, Maxim Gorki, Thomas Mann, Romain Rolland, George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells. L:angston Hughes actively took up the cause of the Scottsboro Case through fund-raising, lecturing and writing, including his publication of Scottsboro Limited, a collection of four poems and a play, the proceeds of which went to the Scottsboro Defense Fund. In December 1931, he visited Kilby Prison, where he read his poems to the Scottsboro inmates. The following essays express his views about the meaning of Scottsboro.

SOUTHERN GENTLEMEN, WHITE PROSTITUTES, MILL-OWNERS, AND NEGROES

If the 9 Scottsboro boys die, the South ought to be ashamed of

itself-but the twelve million Negroes in America ought to be more ashamed than the South. Maybe it's against the law to print the transcripts of trials from a State court. I don't know. If not, every Negro paper in this country ought to immediately publish the offi