“Daybreak in Alabama” is a poem by Langston Hughes about a composer who fantasizes about creating music that will embody the beauty of life in Alabama and thereby lead to healing and a better world. The poem became popular during the sixties due to its inclusion as the closing work in Hughes's last volume of poetry, The Panther and the Lash (1967).
“Daybreak in Alabama” was originally published in the journal Unquote in 1940. However, it stands out in The Panther and the Lash as a hopeful image of a better future for African Americans, contrasting with the collection's darker themes, such as the pitfalls of fame, the tragedies of drug use among Black people, and yearnings for social justice. The poem also provides an antidote to the harsh realities of the twentieth-century United States.
According to literary scholar R. Baxter Miller, “Daybreak” is Hughes's “final and most aesthetic definition of music and art.” In this way, the poem “Daybreak in Alabama” not only imagines a better future for the people of America, but a better future for art and music itself.
