Lanston Hughes’ Drafts of “Ballad of Booker T.”
10
Lanston Hughes’ Drafts of “Ballad of Booker T.” Exploring the Creative Process Primary Source Starter Activity Created by Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Staff Waynesburg University September 2011
Transcript of Lanston Hughes’ Drafts of “Ballad of Booker T.”
Lanston Hughes’ Drafts of
“Ballad of Booker T.”
Exploring the Creative Process
Primary Source Starter Activity
Created by
Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Staff
Waynesburg University
September 2011
1
A Library of Congress Primary Source Starter
Langston Hughes’ Drafts of “Ballad of Booker T.”: Exploring the Creative Process
Quick and easy activity ideas to start using Library of Congress primary sources in the classroom
Teacher Instructions
GoalFour typewritten, marked-up drafts and a final copy of Hughes’ poem “Ballad of Booker T.” are available on the Library of Congress Web site, and allow students to follow the creative process as the poet makes changes to his work over the course of three days.
BackgroundHow can five typewritten pieces of paper provide a glimpse into the mind of a great writer?
In the 1940s, the poet Langston Hughes was a major author who worked in many different literary forms, from poems and short stories to newspaper columns, essays, and songs. He was also a prominent public figure who produced commentaries on culture and race relations in the United States—one publisher later called him “the unchallenged spokesman of the American Negro”.
With that in mind, you can see why a poem from Hughes on the subject of influential but controversial African American educator Booker T. Washington might be subject to scrutiny by the public. You can also speculate as to why Hughes might put such a poem through a thorough revision process. ActivitiesTeachers can have students:• Compare the drafts and the final copy to find some of the edits that Hughes made as he revised the poem.• Speculate about the reasons for the author’s edits. Can students identify any possible shifts in the poem’s
attitude towards Booker T. Washington?• Read an early draft and the final copy out loud. How have Hughes’ edits changed the way the poem sounds?• Speculate about why Hughes might have written this poem when he did, twenty-five years after Washington’s
death.
For more information and teaching ideas in a post from Teaching with the Library of Congress:Booker T. Washington and the Atlanta Compromise.http://blogs.loc.gov/teachers/2011/07/booker-t-washington-and-the-atlanta-compromise/
For more classroom materials and other teacher resources from the Library of Congress, visit loc.gov/teachers
Primary Source
Drafts of Langston Hughes’s Poem ‘Ballad of Booker T’.Hughes, Langston. “Drafts of Langston Hughes’s Poem ‘Ballad of Booker T.’ Poem in manu-script. May 30-June 1, 1941. From Library of Congress: Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division’s First 100 Years.http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mcc:@field(DOCID+@lit(mcc/024))
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