Ah,

My black one,
Thou art not beautiful
Yet thou hast
A loveliness
Surpassing beauty.

Oh,
My black one,
Thou art not good
Yet thou hast
A purity
Surpassing goodness.

Ah,
My black one,
Thou art not luminous
Yet an altar of jewels,
An altar of shimmering jewels,
Would pale in the light
Of thy darkness,
Pale in the light
Of thy nightness.

In a world that upheld (and continues to uphold) Eurocentric beauty

standards, Langston Hughes (1901–1967) celebrated Black beauty and Black
love in “Poem—To the Black Beloved.” Hughes, of course, was a Black poet
and activist. He rose to fame during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, a
time when he said his fellow community members could “express our
individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame.”

If you love Langston Hughes, you’ll love these Amanda Gorman poems for a

modern-day take on social justice and civil rights.