Known as an egalitarian, Walt Whitman’s poems are often seen as champions to social democracy, transcending the boundaries of time, space, and people to make all things equal. It is no surprise then, that the African American literary community has often embraced Whitman with open arms, as a man beyond his time who believed in the rights of all people including slaves. One of Whitman’s biggest supporters in this community was Langston Hughes, a major player during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, a time when the ‘New Negro’ movement was gaining momentum. Hughes not only spoke on behalf of Whitman and put together three Whitman anthologies, but he also transcribed Whitmanian energy throughout poems such as “I too Sing America,” “Let America be America Again,” and “Old Walt.”
The debate over Whitman’s place among African Americans is vast and varied. There are critics today, such as Ivy Wilson, who applaud Whitman for attempting the near impossible task of speaking for both the slave and slave master. However, other Whitmanian critics strongly believe he fails to be a true voice to the oppressed black community. Ken Peeples Junior argues that Whitman’s America only included white people and although Whitman addresses slavery, it is with too much ambiguity and inconsistency to be praised. In order to extend this already overly saturated conversation, my fifteen page paper will not argue one side versus the other, but rather will explore the undeniable fact that Hughes was an African American believer in Whitman. George Hutchinson addresses Hughes’s Whitmanian praise explaining how the poet saw himself as an “heir” to the good grey poet himself. Hutchinson explains how Hughes saw Whitman as the true meaning of democracy, one of the reasons Whitman resonated so greatly with an African American man struggling for equality in 1920’s America.
The goal of my project is to explore Hughes’s use of Whitman specifically during the Harlem Renaissance, the literary black movement of the 1920s and 30s where African American writers sought a new meaning to their identity. Through the examination of the three primary poems listed in this introduction, I plan to analyze both how and why Hughes chooses Whitman as a guiding voice in uplifting the African American community. The Harlem Renaissance offered America this idea of the ‘New Negro,’ a race conscious, optimistic, and uncompromising opponent when it came to advancing the African American race. It is important then to explore where Hughes uses Whitman (A white man) ideals to appeal to this New Negro, and why he channels Whitmanian energy to reach out to his own black community through poetry. I plan to have my fifteen page paper addressing and answering this question completed by the due date, April 17.
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