Langston Hughes
After coming back from my brother’s house tonight, I was able to watch some of The People Speak on the History Channel. It is a series of readings and songs by contemporary actors and artists based on Howard Zinn’s People’s History of the United States. One reading particularly struck me, a reading by Danny Glover of a poem by Langston Hughes’ “Ballad of Roosevelt”. It was written during the great depression of the thirties and first appeared in the New Republic in 1934. Yet if we substitute the word “Obama” for “Roosevelt” it is relevant today.
As Howard Zinn points out, in history courses we are taught about the great accomplishments of President Roosevelt, creating jobs, social security, minimum wage, the welfare system, but we do not hear about the people’s protests, strikes, nonviolent actions that pushed President Roosevelt to take these positions. As he points out, democratic change comes from the bottom up not the top down.
Friends of mine have put lots of hope in the election of President Obama. During the campaign he asked us, if he was elected, to push him for the change that he was promising. Yet now some of the same persons are willing to excuse President Obama for not following up on his promises and are willing to wait for Obama.
There are more and more people, unemployed, going hungry, homeless, being foreclosed each day in the United States. Yet while President Obama escalates his war in Afghanistan, the American people who elected the president are willing to wait for him to change.
Read the poem below and substitute “waitin’ for Obama” for “waitin’ on Roosevelt.”
The pot was empty,
The cupboard was bare.
I said, Papa,
What’s the matter here?
I’m waitin’ on Roosevelt, son,
Roosevelt, Roosevelt,
Waitin’ on Roosevelt, son.
The rent was due,
And the lights was out.
I said, Tell me, Mama,
What’s it all about?
We’re waitin’ on Roosevelt, son,
Roosevelt, Roosevelt,
Just waitin’ on Roosevelt.
Sister got sick
And the doctor wouldn’t come
Cause we couldn’t pay him
The proper sum —
A-waitin on Roosevelt,
Roosevelt, Roosevelt,
A-waitin’ on Roosevelt.
Then one day
They put us out o’ the house.
Ma and Pa was Meek as a mouse
Still waitin’ on Roosevelt,
Roosevelt, Roosevelt.
But when they felt those
Cold winds blow
And didn’t have no
Place to go
Pa said, I’m tired
O’ waitin’ on Roosevelt,
Roosevelt, Roosevelt.
Damn tired o’ waitin’ on Roosevelt.
I can’t git a job
And I can’t git no grub.
Backbone and navel’s
Doin’ the belly-rub —
A-waitin’ on Roosevelt,
Roosevelt, Roosevelt.
And a lot o’ other folks
What’s hungry and cold
Done stopped believin’
What they been told
By Roosevelt,
Roosevelt, Roosevelt —
Cause the pot’s still empty,
And the cupboard’s still bare,
And you can’t build a bungalow
Out o’ air —
Mr. Roosevelt, listen!
What’s the matter here?
Source: Langston Hughes, “Ballad of Roosevelt,” New Republic 31 (November 14, 1934): 9.
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