Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

POEM: Note to All Nazis, Fascists and Klansmen, Langston Hughes, 1943
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
29 Jan 2025
🖨️ Print Article
Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes’s 1943 poem against fascism is precise, droll, and eternal.

Some things need no introduction, no preface, no preamble, no explanatory note to provide context or history. These things speak to the moment with such clarity, and through such brevity, that to otherwise attempt to frame or explain them would take away from their inherent power. Langston Hughes’s poem “Note to All Nazis, Fascists and Klansmen” is such a thing. It is as powerful now as it must have been when first published in 1943, written with the kind of precision and wit that is eternal — and that is quintessential Langston Hughes.

Read “Note to All Nazis, Fascists and Klansmen” below.

Note to All Nazis, Fascists and Klansmen

Langston Hughes

You delight,
So it would seem,
At making mince-meat of my dream.

If you keep on,
Before you’re through,
I’ll make mince-meat
Out of you.

Langston Hughes, “Note to All Nazis, Fascists and Klansmen,” Jim Crow’s Last Stand (New York: Negro Publication Society of America, 1943

Langston Hughes
Fascism

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Waging War Against the People on Behalf of Capital: The Roots of U.S. Domestic Repression
23 September 2026
The "Antifa summit" and the NSPM-7 represent another institutional step toward consolidating fascism in the United States by criminalizing oppo
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The Urgent Need for the Black Radical Tradition
11 March 2026
The U.S.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: Autocracy in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Eric D. Walrond, 1923
14 January 2026
“[T]he United States on March 31, 1917,...acquired the three Danish West Indian isles…subsequently rechristened “the Virgin Islands o
Frank Chapman
How the Enemies of Our Movement Are Using the Kirk Assassination
24 September 2025
Charlie Kirk's assassination has become the pretext to accelerate a pre-existing fascist agenda, targeting a broad spectrum of forces, from lef
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
LETTER: An Open Letter to My Sister, Miss Angela Y. Davis, James Baldwin, 1970
26 February 2025
James Baldwin on white madness–and Black resistance.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
ESSAY: The Prospects for Fascism, Manning Marable, 1981
27 November 2024
Manning Marable reminds us that US fascism is institutional and normalized.
David Hundeyin
The Empire Finds An African Enemy: African Stream In The Crosshairs
25 September 2024
The state has put targets on the backs of left-wing independent media outlets it identifies as subversive.
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
TRANSCRIPT: Analyzing the Correct Method in Combating American Fascism, George Jackson, 1971
17 July 2024
Martyred Black Panther, George Jackson told us long ago that fascism has been the de facto politi
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
For African/Black Working Class and Colonized Peoples, Midterm Elections in the U.S. Offer No Relief from War, Repression and Capitalist Misery
10 July 2024
This article was
Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
BAR Book Forum: Jeanelle K. Hope and Bill V. Mullen’s Book, “The Black Antifascist Tradition”
29 May 2024
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book.

More Stories


  • Biden Orders Progressives to Denounce Themselves on Ukraine
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Biden Orders Progressives to Denounce Themselves on Ukraine
    26 Oct 2022
    Progressives made a mealy mouthed appeal to Biden to engage in talks regarding Ukraine. He slapped them down and they in turn slapped themselves.
  • The Importance of the 20th CPC National Congress to the World
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Importance of the 20th CPC National Congress to the World
    26 Oct 2022
    Corporate media fail in the most basic of journalistic standards when covering China. The recent 20th National Congress of the CPC was an opportunity to convey important information instead of "China…
  • Ethiopia Nears Victory in its Civil War, US Scrambles to Control the Outcome
    Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Ethiopia Nears Victory in its Civil War, US Scrambles to Control the Outcome
    26 Oct 2022
    War between Ethiopia and the TPLF may be coming to an end, but the US is using sanctions to have the final word despite the apparent defeat of its proxy.
  • Stare Decisis?   (Kansas City killer/kidnapper/serial rapist   following in the footsteps of the Founding Fathers?)
    Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Stare Decisis? (Kansas City killer/kidnapper/serial rapist following in the footsteps of the Founding Fathers?)
    26 Oct 2022
                                                           …
  •  BAR Book Forum: Sami Schalk’s Book, “Black Disability Politics”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Sami Schalk’s Book, “Black Disability Politics”
    26 Oct 2022
    This week’s featured author is Sami Schalk. Schalk is Associate Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison Her book is Black Disability Politics.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us