Final answer:
Langston Hughes' poetry conveys a powerful message about civil rights, particularly the right to equality, through his candid depiction of the African American experience and the systemic discrimination they faced. His works serve as a voice of resistance and an affirmation of African American heritage and dignity.
Step-by-step explanation:
Langston Hughes, a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance, used his poetry to highlight the civil rights challenges that African Americans faced. In poems like I Too, Sing America, Hughes addresses the civil right to equality and the resilience of the African American spirit despite systematic oppression and segregation. The line from the poem, "They send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes," illustrates the discriminatory practices that African Americans were subjected to. Yet, Hughes counters this with a message of hope and strength, saying, "But I laugh, and eat well, and grow strong," indicating the inevitability of African Americans rising up and asserting their rightful place in society.
This theme is echoed throughout Hughes' work, which binds the importance of African-American heritage and the celebration of black culture with a candid portrayal of the economic and social hardships that black people endured. His poetry served as a defiant voice against the injustices of racial prejudice and an affirmation of the dignity and beauty of the black experience in America. By drawing upon his own experiences of marginalization in the North, Hughes expressed a bold conviction to showcase African American culture without fear or shame, as seen in his 1926 manifesto "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain."