History of Black Americans--Langston Hughes

On February 1, 1902, a great pillar in the Black community was born in Joplin, Missouri. James Langston Hughes, a member of an abolitionist family, started his journey through life and made his mark in history along the way.

Hughes attended Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio, where he began to write poetry. Langston's father was skeptical of the likelihood of his son being able to support himself by writing so he sent Langston to Columbia University to study engineering. Shortly after entering the engineering program, Langston dropped out of school to become a full time writer.

In 1926, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" was published in Nation. The essay was about the compromises many black poets made including surrendering racial pride by just calling themselves poets instead of black poets, a significant notation for the time period. Hughes' main argument to this situation was stating that all great poets in history were not afraid to speak their minds, and they were not shameful of their work.

One of Langston's favorite pastimes, listening to blues in night clubs, brought on a new writing style shown in a series of poems called The Weary Blues. After a trip in 1923 to Nigeria, Hughes returned to Harlem in 1924 in the middle of the Harlem Renaissance.

Langston was given a scholarship to Lincoln University in pennsylvania where he went on to get his B.A. degree in 1929. Langston received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1935, and in 1940, he received a Rosenwald Fellowship. During his forty year writing career, Langston Hughes wrote sixteen books of poems, two novels, three collections of short stories, and many more essays, editorials, and documentaries.

The Dream Keeper, Not Without Laughter, "The Best of Simple," The First Book of Jazz, and "I Wonder as I Wander" are a few of his best works.

the life of Langston Hughes was ended on May 22, 1967, by cancer, but the legacy of a great poet, author, essayist, historian and leader will be remembered forever.

Joshua Burston, Editor