At the end of his poem “Let America Be America Again”, Langston Hughes advises the common people to shape America into what it was always intended to be. Let's look at this in more detail.

The poem begins with a simple call: “let America be America again” and “let it be the dream it used to be.” After the first stanza another speaker “interrupts," adding “America never was America to me.” This tense dialogue continues for a while. The first speaker longs for the return of the American ideal, while the second speaker notes that this ideal never actually existed for many people.

The interrupting speaker then takes over and explains that there are many people who never could embrace the American dream, like the “poor white,” African-Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants. There are others, too, who never experienced America as a dream, specifically poor farmers and factory workers, people who are hungry and could never get ahead, and those who have never really been free.

These are the ones the speaker calls upon to rise up and redeem the land, reshape the country, and make the freedom of the American dream accessible to everyone.

The poem also sends a message about power. Those who must rise up and reveal the real America are the ones who have traditionally been powerless. They are the ones who have been oppressed, burdened by those that “live like leeches” on their lives and labor. Now, however, they must claim power for themselves and use it in the right way to make the country what it was always intended to be.