Open Letter To The South 'And Share-Croppers'

During the Great Depression, life was especially harsh for the working class. The downfall of the economy caused unemployment, layoffs, and wage reduction to plague the United States. Consequently, the poor white and black workers who found it already difficult to make a living, suffered even worse. In the poems “Share-Croppers” and “Open Letter to the South”, both written by renown poet, Langston Hughes, gives us a glimpse into the life of a blue collar worker in the mid-1930s. “Open Letter to the South” and “Share-Croppers” share a lot of similarities in regards to the depiction of how the working class were treated. Despite the similarities, the two poems had a slight difference in their message(s) and how those messages were conveyed.
The amount of work they do does not amount to what they get back, which would be little to nothing. In the second poem, “Open Letter to the South”, Hughes suggests that both white and black workers should unite and become one. Only that would allow the workers to be strong enough to stand against the rich that “enslaves” them with low wages and poor working conditions. Both poems connect blacks and whites by their social class. Mutually, the two races are exploited by the rich, giving them no opportunity for advancement. The most distinct difference that separates the two poems is that “Share-Croppers” spoke exclusively about black sharecroppers. On the other hand, the second poem spoke about the amalgamation of both