debt. When their hopes of working in the new industries of the North were met with "deferment" as they again encountered racial prejudice, despair must surely have come into their hearts. Despite leaving the South, many of the new migrants found themselves again segregated; only this time they had to live in run-down urban slums such as Harlem. Thus, the reader can point to certain lines that are relevant to the history of those who were in Harlem, and then put him/herself in place of the speaker.

"Mother to Son":

The reader response on this poem could discuss this poem as a mother's response to her son's loss of dreams of the future. She encourages him to never surrender his dreams—"So boy, don't you turn back"—but to continue fighting even though there are obstacles ("it's kinder hard") in his way. She tells him

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

The phrase “crystal stair” is intriguing. It can be found in a variety of texts from the nineteenth century, some religious and some secular, and it is often used to suggest the glorious connection or procession from earth to heaven. [Enotes]