COLORED CHILD AT CARNIVAL
Where is the Jim Crow section
On this merry-go-round,
Mister, cause I want to ride?
Down South where I come from
White and colored
Can’t sit side by side.
Down South on the train
There’s a Jim Crow car.
On the bus we’re put in the back—
But there ain’t no back
To a merry-go-round!
Where’s the horse
For a kid that’s black?
Langston Hughes, "Merry-Go-Round," from The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. Copyright ©1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes. Used by perrmission of Alfred A. Knopf.