The Black Man's Truth

The black race has endured racial injustice, prejudice, and oppression since the formation of the Thirteen Colonies in North America. From Texas to Mississippi to Alabama to Virginia, black slaves had to work inhumanely while carrying the traditions and culture of black civilization. In "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," Langston Hughes refers to himself as the man who built the huts when Africa was just born, the man who bathed in the rivers of the earliest civilization, the man who built the African monument of the pyramids, and the man who witnessed Abraham Lincoln during his first visit to New Orleans. Obviously, Hughes has not lived for nearly 5000 years, but as a black man, he represents all of black civilization, black tradition, black history, and black culture. While individuals may change, the rivers never change as they witness all that the black man has witnessed from the beginning of life, which is best exemplified using the refrain, "I've known rivers." The black man knows the river just like how the river knows him and his past. This degree of verisimilitude creates a truthful, historical account of the black man's struggles and burdens. Using a chronological order, Hughes builds the poem up to the eventual freedom of the blacks when "its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset." While this poem is not perfectly truthful, Hughes' use of verisimilitude illustrates that the emotions that Hughes feels and carries reflect the emotions of his race from their early and recent histories.