Drafts of Langston Hughes’s poem “Ballad of Booker T.,” 30 May-1 June. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/mcc.024/
This set of resources shows the writing process of a skilled and important writer. It shows how writing is improved and developed through the revision process and reveals the thinking and intent of the author as he was composing this piece. It’s also a door through which we can review the life, work, speeches, and writing of Booker T. Washington and his critics.
These are five images of the drafts of Langston Hughes’s poem “Ballad of Booker T.” written between May 30 and June 1, 1941.
Langston Hughes (1902–1967) was a poet well known for his approachable, lyric poetry that commented on African American culture and race issues in America. He often contributed to the NAACP magazine Crisis, which was founded and edited for quite some time by W. E. B. Du Bois, a strong critic of Booker T. Washington’s gradualist approach to gaining racial equality (see his essay “On Booker T.” linked below.) The poem draws heavily from Booker T. Washington’s 1895 speech in Atlanta, Georgia, which he gave at the Cotton States and International Exposition and, from the perspective of 1941, puts Washington’s views into historical context. These images show the progress the poem made among multiple drafts.
- What changes do you see between the first image and the second?
- What changes do you see between the second and the fifth image?
- Why were these changes made? How was the poem improved by those changes?
- Looking over the transcript of Booker T. Washington’s 1895 speech, what language was lifted for this poem? What does adding Washington’s words to the poem add to its impact on the reader?
- Looking at how many drafts there are of this one poem, what does this tell you about the writing process and the importance of multiple drafts?
- What is your own opinion of Booker T. Washington? What poem would you write about this historical figure?
- How would the message of this poem and its impact be different if the ideas were conveyed in an essay or speech rather than a poem? What are the advantages of this medium?
Alaska ELA standards Grades 9–12
Key Ideas and Details: 2.: Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; restate and summarize main ideas or events, in correct sequence, after reading a text.
- Because we can see multiple drafts and how the message is honed over time, it becomes clearer what the goals of the author actually were.
Craft and Structure: 5.: Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, use literary devices appropriate to genre (e.g., foreshadowing, imagery, allusion or symbolism), order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
- By analyzing the changes between drafts, we can get a front-row seat to Hughes’s choices and the effects those changes have on the reader.
Production and Distribution of Writing: 5.: Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1–3 up to and including grades 9[–10].)
- This series of images teaches students the process of revision—getting the work to carry forth our messages more effectively.
It would be helpful for students to have been introduced to the lives and work of both Langston Hughes and Booker T. Washington for this lesson. Then have students compare the changes made between drafts. Analyzing the effect of each change teaches the art and process of writing and the importance of paying attention to sound and rhythm in writing. After comparing each draft to the next one, compare the final draft to the first draft. The final draft is great, but was the first draft terrible? What is the importance of improving things that might already be pretty good? Students can use this poem and its process as a model for writing their own piece about a historical figure.
- Booker T. Washington is a controversial figure even now. Some families might feel that reading a poem honoring a man who promoted gradualist ideas might promote those gradualist ideas or condone segregationist ideas.
Links to resources for approaching those topics
- Including some writing from critics of Booker T. Washington, like W. E. B. Du Bois would help put this poem and its ideas in context and help them explore their own thinking about Booker T. Washington. His essay “Of Mr. Booker T.” in his essay collection The Souls of Black Folk is a good place to start (see link below)
- Letter and Corrected reprint of Walt Whitman’s “O Captain, My Captain” with comments by author, 9 February 1888. https://www.loc.gov/item/mcc.055/
- This also shows an author’s thoughts about his own work and it is also a poem honoring a historical figure.
- “Of Mr. Booker T.” from The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Du Bois: “Of Mr. Booker T.”
- Booker T. Washington’s 1895 Speech in Atlanta at the Cotton States and International Exhibition. This speech was later referred to by Du Bois as the “Atlanta Compromise” speech: Booker T. Washington’s 1895 Speech