“O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath —
America will be!”

— Langston Hughes

Let America Be America Again (1935)

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Langston Hughes 79

American writer and social activist 1902–1967

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“" Tis plain to me
As A B C,
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"Oh, yes! but then,"
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“She was somebody who was a very humble person and a very plain spoken person. She's one of those quiet heroes that we have all across America … They're not famous, their names aren't in the newspapers. But, each and every day, they work hard. They look after their families. They sacrifice for their children and their grandchildren. They aren't seeking the limelight. All they try to do is just do the right thing. And in this crowd, there are a lot of quiet heroes like that—mothers and fathers, grandparents who have worked hard and sacrificed all their lives, and the satisfaction that they get is seeing that their children and maybe their grandchildren or their great-children live a better life than they did. And that's what America is about. That's what we're fighting for. And North Carolina, with just one more day, we have the opportunity to honor all of those quiet heroes all across America and all across North Carolina. We can bring change to America to make sure that their work and their sacrifice is honored. That's what we're fighting for.”

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Plain