Introduction to “Dialogue on Democracy”

Abstract

On June 2, 1939, Langston Hughes gave a lecture at the Third International Writers’ Conference in New York entitled “Democracy and Me.” To that audience, Hughes said that when in Europe he had spoken “first as an American and a writer, and second as a Negro.” But in America, “I feel it was in the interest of democracy to reverse the order and to speak primarily as a Negro and a writer, and secondarily as an American—because Negroes are secondary Americans.” He added that all the difficulties that Jews face in Hitler’s Germany are the same as those that African Americans in the United States face with one big difference. Democracy allows him, and others like him, to speak out. “Democracy permits us the freedom of a hope, and some action towards the realization of that hope. Because we live in a democracy, tonight I can stand here and talk to you about our common problem, the problem of democracy and me” (203).Hughes talked at some length about the difficulties of being an African American author in the United States, where black writers were paid less for books and lectures than their white colleagues. He also mentioned the pressure to conform to white expectations. “We are considered exotic. When we are not exotic, we do not sell well” (204). Rampersad suggested that the speech “was perhaps an apologia for the compromises forced on him since his return from the Soviet Union” (370). But in his conclusion, Hughes returned to the more general theme of democracy in America. “It is not a matter of mine or yours. It is a matter of ours. We want to create the American dream, a far more democratic America. I cannot do it without you.” His last words were: “We want America to really be America for everybody. Let us make it so!” (206).“Dialogue on Democracy” is a previously unpublished piece from the Langston Hughes Papers at Yale University.1 The Hughes Papers contain drafts and typescripts for this document that bear a date of February 9, 1939, although there is no date on the final version. Our text comes from the final typed text, with some handwritten additions and corrections. These are all clear, so we have silently incorporated the indicated changes to make the text readable. There is no evidence that it was ever submitted elsewhere for publication. Our goal has been to offer “Dialogue on Democracy” to readers of the Langston Hughes Review so that it can be part of further discussion.In Hughes’s style of “just myself talking to me. Or else me talking to myself,” as he said of about the creation of Simple, “Dialogue on Democracy” forms a kind of pairing with “Democracy and Me.” In the latter piece, in a voice with which we are familiar, Hughes offers the positive view of the future that we see in other works as he asks the audience to join with him to make progress. The premise is that Americans of all colors care about democracy and have faith in it. “Dialogue on Democracy,” offers the opposite assertion.2 Many Americans, faced with the fact that democracy means equal rights for all, would want to have no part of it.With all the talk of democracy and its future in recent election cycles, it seemed like a good idea to let Hughes speak to us on the subject with words that we had not yet heard from him. What Langston has to say here has relevance today, and it also shows that the crisis about democracy has been with us for decades. Hughes’s voice evokes Socratic questioning, and while one does not often see Plato and Hughes in the same sentence, it is worth noting that where Plato investigates the meaning of “beauty” and “virtue,” Hughes explores “democracy” and “freedom.” Hughes once stated, “I wish the smart people of the world could realize that they don’t know what they don’t know” (“Simple and Me” 262). That is the whole point of Socratic dialogue.