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Langston Hughes, a voice of the Harlem Renaissance, writes of a black man banished to the kitchen when company arrives. This same man looks to the future, for a day when he will sit at the table to eat with company, because he, too, is an American.

Is it possible to be seen but not noticed? To be noticed but not understood? Ralph Ellison shows that invisibility is no accident.

Following a presidential debate in 2012, Ann Coulter referred to President Barack Obama as a "retard" in one of her tweets. Stephens, a 30-year-old man with Down syndrome wrote this open letter to Coulter in response to her hurtful and uninformed comments.

It may seem like an empty stomach is the worst thing about being poor, but for Junior it’s not being able to save his best friend.

In their trek from Mexico to the U.S. border, this young group is reminded that dangers lurk beneath them and hang over their heads every day and every night.

Written to celebrate President Abraham Lincoln's birthday, this hymn follows the journey of African Americans in this country, remembering the rough road traveled but thanking God for seeing them to a bright future.

This poem features two speakers, a person and God. The person questions why God made him/her black and lists the negative associations with the color. God answers by showing all the beautiful ways humans are created.

The first Black Southerner to have a book of poetry published, Horton's plea for freedom personifies liberty and beseeches her to stamp out oppression and break his chains.

In 1942, “For My People” won the Yale Series of Younger Poets award, and Margaret Walker became one of the youngest black writers to have published poetry in the 20th century. Her poem makes tangible the African American struggle, yet also brings to the forefront a hope for all people to “rise and take control” during a dark period in American history.