One-Way Ticket

“I pick up my life
And take it with me
And I put it down in
Chicago, Detroit,
Buffalo, Scranton,
Any place that is
North and East,
And not Dixie.
“I pick up my life
And take it on the train
To Los Angeles, Bakersfield
Seattle, Oakland, Salt Lake—
Any place that is
North and West,
And not South.
“I am fed up
With Jim Crow laws,
People who are cruel
And afraid,
Who lynch and run,
Who are scared of me
And me of them.
“I pick up my life
And take it away
On a one-way ticket—
Gone up North,
Gone out West,
Gone!"

The above poem was written by poet Langston Hughes in 1949 and referred to the Great Migration, the exodus of hundreds of thousands of blacks from the Deep South to the Northern and Western cities of the United States.

Photo of Langston Hughes courtesy http://1.bp.blogspot.com.