an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. He moved to New York City as a young man, where he made his career.

Like many African Americans, Hughes had a complex ancestry. Both of Hughes' paternal great-grandmothers were enslaved African Americans.

The poem is written in free verse, meaning there's no metrical pattern here. No pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables.In the poem each stanza is split into two sentences .

Then the speaker envisions a future in which he is no longer sent to the kitchen, in which no one would dare to call him unequal. They (presumably, the white majority) will see him as beautiful and "be ashamed" at their previous prejudice.

the speaker begins by claiming that he, too, "sings America" . He goes on to note that he is "the darker brother" , referring to his skin color, and then makes reference to the fact that he is sent "to eat in the kitchen / when company comes" , as if he were a black slave in a white household. The oppression, however, doesn't stop him from laughing and growing strong.

The poem concludes with the speaker asserting, again, that he (and, therefore, his race) is indeed American.

Langston Hughes continuously fought for social justice and racial equality through his literature.