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The Harlem Renaissance 

Langston Hughes first published “I, Too” in his 1926 collection The Weary Blues, which helped establish his legacy as a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance refers to a major explosion of Black intellectual and artistic activity that erupted in the 1920s. Though centered on the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, the Renaissance had an international reach that witnessed the flowering of Black intellectual discourse, literature, visual art, music, and fashion. All these forms of cultural and artistic production sought to challenge racism, subvert predominant stereotypes, and develop a progressive new politics that advanced Black people and promoted integration. At the center of the Harlem Renaissance stood the figure known as the New Negro. The “Old Negro” remained hampered by the historical trauma of slavery. The “New Negro,” by contrast, possesses a renewed sense of self, purpose, and pride. Langston Hughes contributed to this vision of the “New Negro” through his poetry. In works like “I, Too,” he features a speaker who expresses a great deal of self-confidence and faith that Black Americans would soon achieve freedom and get a proverbial seat at the table.

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