Chapter 15, Jim Crowe Southern Style Summary

After they returned to New York City, Langston began planning for a poetry-reading tour. He wrote to the Rosenwood Fund and received a thousand dollar grant for his tour. Then Hughes purchased a Ford, and asked his friend, Radcliffe Lucas, to drive and act as manager for the tour. His friend agreed, and, in October of 1931, they set off toward the South.

The tour took Langston to colleges, high schools, and local meeting places. Because they were often unwelcome in hotels, Lucas and Hughes spent most of their evenings as guests in black households. As they got deeper into the South, the color line became more apparent. Langston's poem, "Christ in Alabama," appeared in the school paper of an all white college the day Hughes was to recite there. This poem, which refers to Christ...