Volume 10 201
encompass the world with his words. Hughes re-
peats several phrases (“I’ve known rivers,” “my
soul has grown deep like rivers”), to make the poem
sound like an incantation, or magical spell. Some
critics remark that these repetitions echo the tone
and rhythm of black spirituals. Hughes became fa-
mous for his use of other African American musi-
cal forms in his poetry, particularly jazz and blues.
In addition to repeating phrases, Hughes re-
peats syntactic units in a catalog or list: “I’ve
known,” “I bathed,” “I built,” “I looked,” etc. The
Bible catalogs who begot whom, and who boarded
the ark; the poet Virgil cataloged all the ships and
heroes going into the Trojan War. Catalogs, like
the technique of long lines, represent vast numbers
and magnitude. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,”
the catalog of the speaker’s actions testifies to his
(and the race’s) vast worldly experience and im-
portance in human history.
Historical Context
During the period of Reconstruction which fol-
lowed the American Civil War, Northern troops re-
mained in the South in order to help eradicate the
lingering effects of slavery. In spite of much op-
position, the Freedman’s Bureau was established;
its purpose was, in large part, to protect the rights
of the black population. In addition, branches of a
political organization, known alternately as the
Union or Loyalty League, were established to en-
sure voting rights for former slaves. As a result of
this, many African Americans held political office
at the local, state, and federal level; two black sen-
ators and several congressmen were elected from
the South during those years. In fact, one of the
senators, Hiram R. Revels, was elected to complete
the term of Jefferson Davis, former president of the
Confederacy.
However, when the Northern troops left the re-
gion in 1877, state and local governments quickly
returned to white domination. Local authorities be-
gan to set up a series of statutes aimed at disen-
franchising black citizens. Poll taxes and literacy
tests were mandated; laws requiring segregation
were passed. The federal government in Washing-
ton looked the other way, ignoring the problem.
Thus by the beginning of the twentieth century, the
South was once again firmly under white control.
Blacks were summarily denied rights they had pre-
viously held. In Alabama, for example, the num-
ber of blacks on the voting rolls went from 181,470
in 1900 to 3000 in 1901.
The denial of political and civil rights was,
however, only a part of the problem which blacks
faced in the United States. Once the Reconstruc-
tion era ended, blacks had little protection against
a rising wave of violence directed against them.
Lynching became part of the southern way of life.
In “Blood at the Root,” an article on lynching in
Timemagazine, Richard Lacayo noted that “lynch-
ing evolved into a semiofficial institution of racial
terror against blacks. All across the former Con-
federacy, blacks who were suspected of crimes
against whites—or even ‘offenses’ no greater than
failing to step aside for a white man’s car or protest-
ing a lynching—were tortured, hanged and burned
to death by the thousands.” The NAACP collected
statistics which indicated that during the years be-
tween 1889 and 1918 over 2572 blacks were lynch-
ing victims.
Several prominent African-American leaders
attempted to address these issues. One was Booker
T. Washington, perhaps the most dominant figure
in African-American political and social thought at
the time and the founder of the Tuskeegee Institute
in Alabama. He did not believe in directly chal-
lenging the unjust southern system. Instead, he felt
that vocational and technical training, which would
improve the economic status of blacks, would en-
courage a gradual change. The primary educational
goal of his Tuskeegee Institute, therefore, was in-
dustrial education, the preparation for jobs. While
academic subjects were not ignored, they also were
not emphasized.
Several other noted black figures of the time,
however, rejected Washington’s non-aggressive
policy, calling his views accomodationist. One
prominent critic was W.E.B. DuBois, a teacher and
intellectual who had received a doctoral degree
from Harvard. DuBois was joined by William
Monroe Trotter, editor of the Boston Guardian,a
newspaper which regularly attacked Washington’s
views. Both of these men felt that Washington’s
approach, which was very popular with white
politicians, was actually harmful to blacks. In 1905,
the two organized a meeting at Niagara Falls to
protest discrimination. The “Niagara Movement”
called for active protest against injustice. This
eventually led to the founding of the National As-
sociation for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) in 1909.
Cedric Robinson in Black Movements in Amer-
icadescribes the weaknesses, problems, and victo-
ries of the NAACP during its early years: “Despite
its contradictions, its frequent political timidity, and
the active hostility of presidents, congresses, andThe Negro Speaks of Rivers