On March 23rd, Senator Cory Booker spoke at Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings. In doing so, Booker also quoted Langston Hughes’s poem “Let America be America Again.”

“As Langston Hughes wrote, ‘Oh let America be America again. The land that never has been yet, but yet must be — the land where everyone is free. Oh yes I say it plain, America never was America to me. But I swear this oath: America will be.’ That is the story of how you got to this desk… ”

Consider + think

• What is the significance of the use of this poem in this particular moment?

• What is Senator Booker expressing by utilizing this poem in this way?

• Where else can we identify this poem and its message out in the world?

• How has this poem been utilized throughout history?

• How would you use this poem? And why?

To learn more

If you would like to learn and read more, please visit NPR’s “The history behind the Langston Hughes poem used in the Ketanji Brown Jackson hearing.”