In a meticulous combination of close reading, biblical exegesis, and literary analysis, W. Jason Miller, in Origins of the Dream: Hughes's Poetry and King's Rhetoric, offers an intriguing reinterpretation of Langston Hughes by demonstrating the influence Hughes's poetry exerted on the rhetoric of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Miller focuses on the metaphor of the dream, which, in his formulation, derives principally from three of Hughes's poems: "Youth," "I Dream a World," and

From The Conversation Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream – which alternated between shattered and hopeful – can be traced back to Hughes’ poetry. AP Photo For years, Martin Luther King Jr. and poet Langston Hughes maintained a friendship, exchanging letters and favors and even traveling to Nigeria together in 1960. In 1956, King recited Hughes’ poem “Mother to Son” from the pulpit to honor his wife Coretta, who was celebrating her first Mother’s Day. That same year, Hughes wrote

By Nash Dunn From NC State University News Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches help form the foundation of his legacy. From “I have a dream” to “Fill up the jails,” his words are timeless. Echoing from old recordings and jumping off the page of the written record, King’s ideas and rhetoric pillared the civil rights movement, and they continue to inform and instruct leaders as they navigate current social challenges. They’re still used by teachers to educate students — still use

From NC State University News By Nash Dunn Months before delivering his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. spoke the famous refrain in a small town in North Carolina. For years, Rocky Mount citizens have told tales about hearing the first rendition of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. On Nov. 27, 1962, nine months before the refrain echoed across the National Mall during the March on Washington, the words r

By Tim Peeler From NC State University News In his new book Origins of the Dream , NC State English professor Jason Miller makes a tangible connection between the long suspected but never proven link between the poetry of Harlem Renaissance hero Langston Hughes and the prose of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. This is Miller’s second book on the poetry of Hughes. His first, Langston Hughes and American Lynching Culture , was published in 2011. Miller, a former colle