Eat in the Kitchen (Present)
...they send me to eat in the kitchen
when company comes...

 
 
    The usage of the phrase, they send me to eat in the kitchen when company comes, is referring to the present (when Langston Hughes wrote this poem). The present day of the 1920's, when black people (like Hughes) were not allowed the same rights as white people. This phrase is saying that a black person's white master or owner sends him to eat in the kitchen when company comes, as black people were thought to be inferior and uneducated. The white owner was somewhat embarrassed if company came and they saw that he shared his table with a black person. Hughes is simply stating a statement that helps the reader to understand what harshness and penalties he faced because he was black.
 

To lean more about the author of this poem, Langston Hughes, visit The Academy of American Poets at
                                        http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=84

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