MERRY-GO-ROUND by Langston Hughes (1902-1967)
colored child at carnival:
Where is the Jim Crow section
On this merry-go-round,
Mister, cause I want to ride?
Down South where I come from
White and colored
Can’t sit side by side.
Down South on the train
There’s a Jim Crow car.
On the bus we’re put in the back–
But there ain’t no back
To a merry-go-round!
Where’s the horse
For a kid that’s black?
It wasn’t like young Langston Hughes to get into trouble. But, in 1914, when his seventh-grade teacher moved him and the other African-American students into a separate row in class, he got angry. So he put cards that read “JIM CROW ROW” on the black kids’ desks. He was soon expelled. But a protest rose up among the parents and Langston was eventually allowed to return to school. He had fought back and won a victory: separate seating in his school was no longer permitted.
Although Langston Hughes attended school with whites in Kansas, he wasn't allowed to play sports of join clubs. Signs throughout town read: "No Coloreds Allowed" and facilities for whites and blacks were separate. This anti-black caste system was known as Jim Crow Laws and operated mostly in the Southern United States between 1877 and the mid-1960s. It was used to keep blacks as second-class citizens.
Readers, you might also enjoy: Langston Hughes: When Sue Wears Red.
Lisa's History Room 
My favorite “fun” Langston Hughes is “Harlem Beauties”. Almost anyone can write a poem. It take a genius to write a list and fill it with meaning.
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Oops
Harlem Sweeties
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=177389
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I must check it out!
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hi my name is aiyanna (i.yanna) i am in the 7th grade i love socail studies other kids in my class hate it but i say o well who dosent wanna learn about our past , history. i doo who knows we might need it some day and plus i wanna be smthing in life some people dont but hay i cant wrry bout them thx 4 reading bye
socail studies loves yanni
lolxz
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Yanni, thanks for writing!
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