I Dream A World

Though the original words are exclusive, the sentiment is eternal. The bracketed phrases have been inserted to include everyone…

I dream a world where [each person]
No other [person] will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom’s way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every [person] is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all [humanity] –
Of such I dream, my world!

Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that "the Negro was in vogue", which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue."