Summary

Langston Hughes’ short story “One Friday Morning” focuses on Nancy Lee Johnson, an African-American high school student and aspiring artist. Nancy Lee expects to win a college scholarship awarded in a painting competition. Although she is unsure whether she will actually win, she is confident that her painting is good.

Nancy Lee likes her school and classmates, and especially her art teacher, Miss Dietrich. Nancy Lee is also proud of being both American and black, and her parents have taught her about her African heritage. Her parents grew up in the South, where they struggled hard to gain an education. Although they are not particularly well-off, they have made an effort to move to the North so that Nancy Lee can have better access to education.

Nancy Lee’s painting depicts a park landscape in the spring, where children are playing, and an old African-American woman is looking at an American flag flying in the center of the park. One April afternoon,...