In a superficial reading of Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem" (later titled "Dream Deferred") one sees only its obvious simplicity. ... so dramatic that the latter hardly seems to merit the emphasis it receives by being set off as a stanza by itself. Had Hughes allowed stanza divisions to complement rhyme scheme by making the last three lines into a single concluding stanza and dividing the ... seven-line stanza between lines 5 and 6, the resulting three stanzas would more clearly reflect the structure, the inner body, of the poem, which consists of three paired oppositions: "dry up" and "fest...

• Word Count: 567
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... 1 million African-Americans participated in this mass movement. During the first decade of the 20th century, the infestation of southern cotton crops by insects called boll weevils diminished production and curtailed the need for farm labor. The CHICAGO DEFENDER, the most influential black newspaper encouraged blacks ... poor and sometimes illiterate. For most, the North was no paradise. Those arriving in Harlem after 1929, would have found a city devastated by the Great Depression and racked with unemployment, poverty and homelessness. As in the South, segregation in housing and hiring...

• Word Count: 889
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate