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What Happens to a Dream Deferred?

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Deriving its title from Langston Hughes’ poem Harlem (1951), What Happens to a Dream Deferred? is a collaborative mural organized and painted by students from five secondary schools across the Los Angeles area. The mural is largely a response to Rodney King’s beating and racial harassment by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1991 and is a result of the riots and social upheaval caused by this case. Incorporating cubist elements such as collage-style depictions and a two-dimensional plane, the mural revolves around the struggles and hardships that African American communities face including class issues, establishing and understanding cultural identity, historical roots of oppression, and lack of education.

The mural epitomizes Hughes’ brief poem representing the forms and symbolisms embedded within it. The mural represents the “dream” of education, culture, unity, and democracy and juxtaposes these positive possibilities with the words that conclude Hughes’ poem: “Or does it explode”. These words are significant as they symbolize the explosion of uprising that took place following the brutal beating of Rodney King, but also by symbolizing the immoral and hopeless product of dreams deferred. The mural not only criticizes the injustices of America, but simultaneously “celebrates justice and the ongoing struggle against ignorance and prejudice” as Marco Elliot has said. The first panel appears to be the critique of economic and social problems while the second exists as a breakthrough of cultural identity and solidarity among cultures.

Written by Immanuel Mitchell, c/o ‘24