Both Langston Hughes's poem "Harlem" and Martin Luther King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" were written at a time in the 1950s and early 1960s when the Black community was reaching a point of deep frustration over their lack of progress in gaining civil rights. Both works are alike in expressing to the white community that the Black people may soon boil over into violence if their long deferred needs for justice and opportunity are not addressed.

King explains in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail," written in response to white pastors complaining about his nonviolent actions, that Black people tried to negotiate in good faith with Birmingham city leaders for a less discriminatory environment, only to be betrayed by the lack of any change. He writes:

We were confronted with blasted hopes, and the dark shadow of a deep disappointment settled upon us.

He also notes that:

Twenty million Negro brothers [are] smothering in an airtight cage of poverty

King states he has had to lead protests because for too long his people have helplessly watched lynchings and lived in fear. Without some action, he fears Black people will join forces with extremist groups and turn to violence.

Likewise, in "Harlem," Hughes writes of a "dream deferred." He uses a series of unpleasant images to describe what it is like to feel hopeless, as Blacks in Harlem in the 1951 do, comparing unfulfilled dreams to rotting meat and hard, dried raisins, and ending his description with the italicized question "or does it [a dream deferred] explode?"

Like King's letter, Hughes's poem warns whites that without change, racial violence could soon erupt. Both works use imagery of Black suffering to try to raise sympathy for the plight of Black people and to try to illustrate what life looks like from a Black perspective.