What Picture of a Black American do you Get from the Poem, ‘I, Too, Sing America’?

Picture of a Black American from the Poem, ‘I, Too, Sing America’

The persona of the poem, ‘I, Too, Sing America’ speaks out as a black American slave at a white American’s house. He gives a brief but significant picture of himself as a slave. This poem was published in 1945, about a decade before the Civil Rights Movement in America which started about the year 1955, and ended with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Nearly hundred years after the Proclamation of Emancipation, African-Americans were

regarded as inferior citizens of America and denied equal rights and privileges with the Whites. In the 1940s, many black Americans were servants in the white Americans’ houses. This poem gives a short description of how the persona was treated at a white man’s house. The house master sent him to kitchen for having his meal there, when some white guests visited them. The black servant was not allowed to sit and eat with them.  A clear distinction was made between the black and the white Americans.

The poet gives a very brief account of the condition of the black American slave, but though brief, the picture is significant, and representative of the conditions of the black Americans in all situations of their life in America.