Mother to Son

"Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So, boy, don't you turn back.
Don't you set down on the steps.
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.
Don't you fall now—
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair."
-Langston Hughes (1902-1967)

In the poem "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes, Langston takes the role of a mother, speaking to her son about what her life has been like and the troubles that she's been through. The poem acts as a kind of motivational speech to the son, telling him, "Don't you set down on the steps, 'Cause you finds it kinder hard." The mother is telling the son not to give up because life get's hard, and that he's not climbing a crystal stair, like some people.
The crystal stair in the poem represents perfection, and how not all people get to live the kind of life where everything is perfect. The mother, speaking to the son, is telling him about all the difficulties that she's had in life. A splinter, a tack, cold, bare floors or torn up stair boards. Some things hurt for a minute, like a splinter, but some leave bruises for days, or even scars and cuts.
The time period in which the poem was written (1922, around the time of the Great Depression and when African Americans didn't have as many rights as they do today and were discriminated against) also relates to the theme of not giving up because of bumps in the road like in "Mother to Son".
Even 41 years later, there were still issues with discrimination against African Americans.
On August 28th, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. said:
"...We must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land."
In the poem "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes, not only does the son represent a literal son, whose mother is telling him valuable information that he'll use throughout his life, the son also symbolizes the whole entire African American population in the United States in 1922, and Hughes is telling them not to let a ripped up floor board, or being tired of climbing, stop them from reaching their ultimate goal: equality.