Perseverance. A striving to reach new heights. A struggle to overcome hardship and injustice. The determination to keep moving forward.
The indomitability of the human spirit is a marvel to witness. Our ability to grow as a society, to wrestle with long-standing wrongs and fashion new hope, is one of the great strengths of the United States.
But the burdens of our progress have fallen far too heavily on the most marginalized. This is especially true for Black Americans, who were brought to these shores as property, robbed of humanity, tortured in body and mind, and denied the fruits of labor.
As we can sadly see in our current times, there are still powerful forces in this country who want to deny these historical truths, as uncomfortable as those truths may be. And still we have so far to go.
Yet once again, we cannot forsake hope, because our history also shows that we can make great strides. It is a journey that has taken generations and has come at great cost for those who must do the hard work of pulling our nation upwards. This is a story centuries in the making, and it must be remembered. It is a helpful development that Juneteenth became a national holiday (a milestone we celebrated in this Steady post). Hopefully its annual occurrence will become a cause for continued reflection.
One of the most effective chroniclers of America’s complicated realities was the poet Langston Hughes. His work is infused with both the tragedy and the promise of what this country was and is. For even though he wrote for a different era, his words speak to us across the decades. Today we are pleased to feature “Mother to Son,” which was written in 1922.
Few bonds are stronger than those between mother and child, and one of the great sins of slavery was that families were torn apart. In this poem, we hear a mother share the reality of her life with her son. It is a story of suffering and striving, imbued with the hope that she can encourage him to continue the climb she has started. It is a story of pain but ultimately also of hope.
We were pleasantly surprised to find a recording of the poem as recited by a rather remarkable person. We share a video of that below as well.
By Langston Hughes
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
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