Jim Crow System [Merry-Go-Round (Colored Child at Carnival)]Poem

February 9, 2009

AIM: (1)What was Jim Crow?

(2)How did Langston Hughes deal with Jim Crow?

Where is the Jim Crow section

On this merry-go-round,
Mister, cuase 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?

Questions
What do you think the poem is about?
How do you think it felt being a young kid growing up with segregation?
If you were to get on a Merry-go-round today, would you have the same experience as the kid in the poem? Why or why not?
Why do you think Langston Hughes wrote this poem?

Answers

1. I think that the poem is about how whites and blacks were segregated.
2. I think that it was hard and tough being a growing COLORED person.
3. No. This is because segregation was over a few years ago.
4. I think he wrote this poem to show how we couldn't be next to a white person at all before.