This brief essay by Langston Hughes is in many ways a manifesto for the Harlem Renaissance, the movement by young African American artists, writers, and musicians in the 1920s. Hughes's argument is summarized at the beginning of the essay, where he observes that African American artists are under pressure to emulate white art in an attempt to gain respectability:

But this is the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America—this urge within the race toward whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible.

Hughes is arguing that Black artists should embrace "racial individuality." According to him, their work should celebrate Black culture, not emulate white culture. He is especially scathing in his criticism of the Black middle class, people whom he accuses of rejecting their heritage by scorning behaviors, art, and culture that they associate with African American life. Of course, these would be the people that would be most likely to consume art created by African American artists, and this is the "mountain" that these artists face.

At the same time, artists and writers like Hughes face pressure from white publishers and critics. They are encouraged to behave and write about themes that are essentially stereotypes—white conceptions of African American culture. In returning to the main argument, Hughes asserts the duty of young African American artists to be true to their own heritage, not to pander to people of either race who try to push them to create inauthentic work. As he puts it,

An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he must choose.