“What happens to a dream deferred?”

Author: Compiled by Catherine Clinton
Title: I, Too, Sing America: Three Centuries of African American Poetry
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.

Grade Level: 3rd grade & up

Summary: A collection of African American poetry from the 1700s- 1900s.

Strengths: What a wonderfully diverse collection of poems! From Langston Hughes to Angelina Grimke to Maya Angelou and Alice Walker, Clinton compiles a diverse and fairly complete collection of poems. Another strength of this work is the short biography of each poet prior to their poems. This information helps to provide background to the poems as well as provide all readers information on these poets. The poems allow for students to tackle tough issues such as slavery and racial discrimination as well as study great African Americans such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X and introduce them to poems turned into songs such as “Lift Ev’ry Voice And Sing.”

Concerns: Each poem in this collection must be reviewed and evaluated on its own to understand if it is appropriate for your intended audience. Since these poems tackle many tough issues related to being African American in America not all of these poems are appropriate for all ages. I think some young audiences can appreciate these poems and even practice reading aloud with the poems. However, these poems are made for older audiences. Older audiences will be able to tackle the issues and look past the figurative language to truly appreciate the poets’ messages.

Classroom Use: These poems would be great supplements or introductions to lessons about slavery, racial discrimination, the Civil Rights Movement, or racism in America. My hope would be that these poems would not be saved for February, but be celebrated as great works of American poetry. These poems can also be used for poetry read alouds, giving students an opportunity to study, rehearse, and perform these poems in front of an audience. The simple bios before the poetry also lend itself to author studies on these great poets and their work.

(image from Amazon.com)