Open Letter to the South Langston Hughes

White workers of the South
        Miners,
        Farmers,
        Mechanics,
        Mill Hands,
        Shop girls,
        Railway men,
        Servants,
        Tobacco workers,
        Sharecroppers,
        GREETINGS!

I am the black worker,
        Listen:
That the land might be ours,
And the mines and the factories and the office towers
At Harlan, Richmond, Gastonia, Atlanta, New Orleans;
That the plants and the roads and the tools of power
Be ours:

Let us forget what Booker T. said,
"Separate as the fingers."

Let us become instead, you and I,
One single hand
That can united rise
To smash the old dead dogmas of the past--
To kill the lies of color
That keep the rich enthroned
And drive us to the time-clock and the plow
Helpless, stupid, scattered, and alone--as now--
Race against race,
Because one is black,
Another white of face.