I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
Jazz was the most renowned black voice. African American music had disseminated to Harlem during the Great Migration, and soldiers spread it to Europe during the war. In New York, the Cotton Club, though segregated, was packed with white patrons hoping hear musicians like Louis Armstrong,