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James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called jazz poetry, Hughes is best known as a leader of the
Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...
. He famously wrote about the period that "the Negro was in vogue", which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue." Growing up in a series of Midwestern towns, Hughes became a prolific writer at an early age. He moved to New York City as a young man, where he made his career. He graduated from high school in Cleveland, Ohio, and soon began studies at Columbia University in New York City. Although he dropped out, he gained notice from New York publishers, first in '' The Crisis'' magazine and then from book publishers, and became known in the creative community in Harlem. He eventually graduated from Lincoln University. In addition to poetry, Hughes wrote plays and short stories. He also published several nonfiction works. From 1942 to 1962, as the civil rights movement was gaining traction, he wrote an in-depth weekly column in a leading black newspaper, '' The Chicago Defender''.


Biography


Ancestry and childhood

Like many African-Americans, Hughes had a complex ancestry. Both of Hughes' paternal great-grandmothers were enslaved Africans, and both of his paternal great-grandfathers were white slave owners in Kentucky. According to Hughes, one of these men was Sam Clay, a Scottish-American whiskey distiller of Henry County, said to be a relative of statesman
Henry Clay Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777June 29, 1852) was an American attorney and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He was the seventh House speaker as well as the ninth secretary of state, al ...
. The other putative paternal ancestor whom Hughes named was Silas Cushenberry, a slave trader of Clark County.Faith Berry
''Langston Hughes, Before and Beyond Harlem''
Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill & Co., 1983; reprint, Citadel Press, 1992, p. 1.
Hughes wrote that Cushenberry was a Jewish slave trader, but a study of the Cushenberry family genealogy in the nineteenth century has found no Jewish affiliation. Hughes's maternal grandmother Mary Patterson was of African-American, French, English and Native American descent. One of the first women to attend
Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...
, she married
Lewis Sheridan Leary Lewis Sheridan Leary (March 17, 1835 – October 20, 1859), an African-American harnessmaker from Oberlin, Ohio, joined John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry, where he was killed. Life Leary's father was a free born African-American harnessm ...
, also of mixed-race descent, before her studies. In 1859, Lewis Leary joined
John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...
in West Virginia, where he was fatally wounded. Ten years later, in 1869, the widow Mary Patterson Leary married again, into the elite, politically active Langston family. (See The Talented Tenth.) Her second husband was Charles Henry Langston, of African-American, Euro-American and Native American ancestry.Richard B. Sheridan
"Charles Henry Langston and the African American Struggle in Kansas"
''Kansas State History'', Winter 1999. Retrieved December 15, 2008.
He and his younger brother John Mercer Langston worked for the abolitionist cause and helped lead the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society in 1858. After their marriage, Charles Langston moved with his family to Kansas, where he was active as an educator and activist for voting and rights for African Americans. His and Mary's daughter
Caroline Caroline may refer to: People * Caroline (given name), a feminine given name * J. C. Caroline (born 1933), American college and National Football League player * Jordan Caroline (born 1996), American (men's) basketball player Places Antarctica * ...
(known as
Carrie Carrie may refer to: People * Carrie (name), a female given name and occasionally a surname Places in the United States * Carrie, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Carrie, Virginia, an unincorporated community * Carrie Glacier, Olympic Nati ...
) became a schoolteacher and married James Nathaniel Hughes (1871–1934). They had two children; the second was Langston Hughes, by most sources born in 1901 in Joplin, Missouri (though Hughes himself claims in his autobiography to have been born in 1902). Langston Hughes grew up in a series of Midwestern small towns. His father left the family soon after the boy was born and later divorced Carrie. The senior Hughes traveled to Cuba and then Mexico, seeking to escape the enduring racism in the United States. After the separation, Hughes's mother traveled, seeking employment. Langston was raised mainly in
Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas River, Kansas and Waka ...
, by his maternal grandmother, Mary Patterson Langston. Through the black American oral tradition and drawing from the activist experiences of her generation, Mary Langston instilled in her grandson a lasting sense of racial pride. Imbued by his grandmother with a duty to help his race, Hughes identified with neglected and downtrodden black people all his life, and glorified them in his work. He lived most of his childhood in Lawrence. In his 1940 autobiography ''The Big Sea'', he wrote: "I was unhappy for a long time, and very lonesome, living with my grandmother. Then it was that books began to happen to me, and I began to believe in nothing but books and the wonderful world in books—where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas." After the death of his grandmother, Hughes went to live with family friends, James and Auntie Mary Reed, for two years. Later, Hughes lived again with his mother Carrie in Lincoln, Illinois. She had remarried when he was an adolescent. The family moved to the
Fairfax Fairfax may refer to: Places United States * Fairfax, California * Fairfax Avenue, a major thoroughfare in Los Angeles, California * Fairfax District, Los Angeles, California, centered on Fairfax Avenue * Fairfax, Georgia * Fairfax, Indiana * Fa ...
neighborhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...
of Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended Central High School and was taught by Helen Maria Chesnutt, whom he found inspiring. His writing experiments began when he was young. While in grammar school in Lincoln, Hughes was elected class poet. He stated that in retrospect he thought it was because of the stereotype about African Americans having rhythm.
I was a victim of a stereotype. There were only two of us Negro kids in the whole class and our English teacher was always stressing the importance of rhythm in poetry. Well, everyone knows, except us, that all Negroes have rhythm, so they elected me as class poet.
During high school in Cleveland, Hughes wrote for the school newspaper, edited the yearbook, and began to write his first short stories, poetry, and dramatic plays. His first piece of jazz poetry, "When Sue Wears Red", was written while he was in high school.


Relationship with father

Hughes had a very poor relationship with his father, whom he seldom saw when a child. He lived briefly with his father in Mexico in 1919. Upon graduating from high school in June 1920, Hughes returned to Mexico to live with his father, hoping to convince him to support his plan to attend Columbia University. Hughes later said that, prior to arriving in Mexico, "I had been thinking about my father and his strange dislike of his own people. I didn't understand it, because I was a Negro, and I liked Negroes very much." His father had hoped Hughes would choose to study at a university abroad and train for a career in engineering. On these grounds, he was willing to provide financial assistance to his son but did not support his desire to be a writer. Eventually, Hughes and his father came to a compromise: Hughes would study engineering, so long as he could attend Columbia. His tuition provided, Hughes left his father after more than a year. While at Columbia in 1921, Hughes managed to maintain a B+ grade average. He published poetry in the ''
Columbia Daily Spectator The ''Columbia Daily Spectator'' (known colloquially as the ''Spec'') is the student newspaper of Columbia University. Founded in 1877, it is the oldest continuously operating college news daily in the nation after ''The Harvard Crimson'', and has ...
'' under a pen name. He left in 1922 because of racial prejudice among students and teachers. He was denied a room on campus because he was black. Eventually he settled in Hartley Hall, but he still suffered from racism among his classmates, who seemed hostile to anyone who did not fit into a WASP category. He was attracted more to the African-American people and neighborhood of Harlem than to his studies, but he continued writing poetry. Harlem was a center of vibrant cultural life.


Adulthood

Hughes worked at various odd jobs before serving a brief tenure as a crewman aboard the S.S. ''Malone'' in 1923, spending six months traveling to West Africa and Europe. In Europe, Hughes left the S.S. ''Malone'' for a temporary stay in Paris. There he met and had a romance with Anne Marie Coussey, a British-educated African from a well-to-do Gold Coast family; they subsequently corresponded, but she eventually married
Hugh Wooding Sir Hugh Olliviere Beresford Wooding (14 January 1904 – 26 July 1974) was a lawyer and politician from Trinidad and Tobago. Legal career Hugh Wooding was born in Trinidad and Tobago into a family that hailed from Barbados. In 1914, he was ...
, a promising Trinidadian lawyer. Wooding later served as chancellor of the
University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...
. During his time in England in the early 1920s, Hughes became part of the black expatriate community. In November 1924, he returned to the U.S. to live with his mother in Washington, D.C. After assorted odd jobs, he gained white-collar employment in 1925 as a personal assistant to historian Carter G. Woodson at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. As the work demands limited his time for writing, Hughes quit the position to work as a busboy at the
Wardman Park Hotel The Washington Marriott Wardman Park was a hotel on Connecticut Avenue adjacent to the Woodley Park station of the Washington Metro in the Woodley Park neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The hotel had 1,152 rooms, of event space, and of exhibit sp ...
. Hughes's earlier work had been published in magazines and was about to be collected into his first book of poetry when he encountered poet Vachel Lindsay, with whom he shared some poems. Impressed, Lindsay publicized his discovery of a new black poet. The following year, Hughes enrolled in Lincoln University, a historically black university in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He joined the
Omega Psi Phi Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. () is a historically African-American fraternity. The fraternity was founded on November 17, 1911, by three Howard University juniors Edgar Amos Love, Oscar James Cooper and Frank Coleman, and their faculty advi ...
fraternity. After Hughes earned a B.A. degree from Lincoln University in 1929, he returned to New York. Except for travels to the Soviet Union and parts of the
Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
, he lived in Harlem as his primary home for the remainder of his life. During the 1930s, he became a resident of Westfield, New Jersey for a time, sponsored by his patron Charlotte Osgood Mason.


Sexuality

Some academics and biographers believe that Hughes was homosexual and included homosexual codes in many of his poems, as did Walt Whitman, who, Hughes said, influenced his poetry. Hughes's story "Blessed Assurance" deals with a father's anger over his son's effeminacy and "queerness".Nero, Charles I. (1997), "Re/Membering Langston", in Martin Duberman (ed.), ''Queer Representations: Reading Lives, Reading Cultures'', New York University Press, Yale Symposium, ''Was Langston Gay?'' commemorating the 100th birthday of Hughes in 2002.Schwarz, pp. 68–88. The biographer Aldrich argues that, in order to retain the respect and support of
black churches The black church (sometimes termed Black Christianity or African American Christianity) is the faith and body of Christian congregations and denominations in the United States that minister predominantly to African Americans, as well as the ...
and organizations and avoid exacerbating his precarious financial situation, Hughes remained
closeted ''Closeted'' and ''in the closet'' are metaphors for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and other (LGBTQ+) people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and human ...
.Aldrich (2001), p. 200. Arnold Rampersad, the primary biographer of Hughes, determined that Hughes exhibited a preference for African-American men in his work and life. But, in his biography Rampersad denies Hughes's homosexuality, and concludes that Hughes was probably asexual and passive in his sexual relationships. Hughes did, however, show a respect and love for his fellow black man (and woman). Other scholars argue for his homosexuality: his love of black men is evidenced in a number of reported unpublished poems to an alleged black male lover.


Death

On May 22, 1967, Hughes died in the
Stuyvesant Polyclinic The Ottendorfer Public Library and Stuyvesant Polyclinic Hospital are a pair of historic buildings at 135 and 137 Second Avenue in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The buildings house the Ottendorfer Branch of the ...
in New York City at the age of 66 from complications after abdominal surgery related to
prostate cancer Prostate cancer is cancer of the prostate. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancerous tumor worldwide and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men. The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that sur ...
. His ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion in the middle of the foyer in the
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a research library of the New York Public Library (NYPL) and an archive repository for information on people of African descent worldwide. Located at 515 Malcolm X Boulevard (Lenox Avenue) b ...
in Harlem. It is the entrance to an auditorium named for him. The design on the floor is an African cosmogram entitled ''Rivers''. The title is taken from his poem " The Negro Speaks of Rivers". Within the center of the cosmogram is the line: "My soul has grown deep like the rivers".


Career

First published in 1921 in '' The Crisis''—official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)—"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" became Hughes's signature poem and was collected in his first book of poetry, ''The Weary Blues'' (1926). Hughes's first and last published poems appeared in ''The Crisis''; more of his poems were published in ''The Crisis'' than in any other journal. Hughes' life and work were enormously influential during the
Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the t ...
of the 1920s, alongside those of his contemporaries,
Zora Neale Hurston Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on Hoodoo (spirituality), hoodoo. The most ...
, Wallace Thurman,
Claude McKay Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay OJ (September 15, 1890See Wayne F. Cooper, ''Claude McKay, Rebel Sojourner In The Harlem Renaissance (New York, Schocken, 1987) p. 377 n. 19. As Cooper's authoritative biography explains, McKay's family predated ...
, Countee Cullen,
Richard Bruce Nugent Richard Bruce Nugent (July 2, 1906 – May 27, 1987), aka Richard Bruce and Bruce Nugent, was a gay writer and painter in the Harlem Renaissance. Despite being a part of a group of many gay Harlem artists, Nugent was among only a few who wer ...
, and Aaron Douglas. Except for McKay, they worked together also to create the short-lived magazine '' Fire!! Devoted to Younger Negro Artists''. Hughes and his contemporaries had different goals and aspirations than the black middle class. Hughes and his fellows tried to depict the "low-life" in their art, that is, the real lives of blacks in the lower social-economic strata. They criticized the divisions and prejudices within the black community based on skin color. Hughes wrote what would be considered their manifesto, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain", published in '' The Nation'' in 1926:
The younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly, too. The tom-tom cries, and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain free within ourselves.
His poetry and fiction portrayed the lives of the working-class blacks in America, lives he portrayed as full of struggle, joy, laughter, and music. Permeating his work is pride in the African-American identity and its diverse culture. "My seeking has been to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America and obliquely that of all human kind", Hughes is quoted as saying. He confronted racial stereotypes, protested social conditions, and expanded African America's image of itself; a "people's poet" who sought to reeducate both audience and artist by lifting the theory of the black aesthetic into reality. Hughes stressed a racial consciousness and cultural nationalism devoid of self-hate. His thought united people of African descent and Africa across the globe to encourage pride in their diverse black folk culture and
black aesthetic The Black Arts Movement (BAM) was an African American-led art movement that was active during the 1960s and 1970s. Through activism and art, BAM created new cultural institutions and conveyed a message of black pride. The movement expanded from ...
. Hughes was one of the few prominent black writers to champion racial consciousness as a source of inspiration for black artists.Rampersad. vol. 2, 1988, p. 297. His African-American race consciousness and cultural nationalism would influence many foreign black writers, including Jacques Roumain, Nicolás Guillén, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Aimé Césaire. Along with the works of Senghor, Césaire, and other French-speaking writers of Africa and of African descent from the Caribbean, such as René Maran from Martinique and Léon Damas from French Guiana in South America, the works of Hughes helped to inspire the Négritude movement in France. A radical black self-examination was emphasized in the face of
European colonialism The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Turkish people, Turks, and the Arabs. Colonialism in the mode ...
. In addition to his example in social attitudes, Hughes had an important technical influence by his emphasis on folk and jazz rhythms as the basis of his poetry of racial pride. In 1930, his first novel, ''
Not Without Laughter ''Not Without Laughter'' is the debut novel by Langston Hughes published in 1930. Plot introduction ''Not Without Laughter'' portrays African-American life in Kansas in the 1910s, focusing on the effects of class and religion on the community. T ...
'', won the
Harmon Gold Medal #REDIRECT William E. Harmon Foundation Award for Distinguished Achievement Among Negroes #REDIRECT William E. Harmon Foundation Award for Distinguished Achievement Among Negroes {{R from move ...
{{R from move ...
for literature. At a time before widespread arts grants, Hughes gained the support of private patrons and he was supported for two years prior to publishing this novel. The protagonist of the story is a boy named Sandy, whose family must deal with a variety of struggles due to their race and class, in addition to relating to one another. In 1931, Hughes helped form the "New York Suitcase Theater" with playwright Paul Peters, artist Jacob Burck, and writer (soon-to-be underground spy) Whittaker Chambers, an acquaintance from Columbia. In 1932, he was part of a board to produce a Soviet film on "Negro Life" with Malcolm Cowley, Floyd Dell, and Chambers. In 1931
Prentiss Taylor Prentiss Taylor (December 13, 1907 – October 7, 1991) was an American illustrator, lithographer, and painter. Born in Washington D.C., Taylor began his art studies at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, followed by painting classes under Charles Hawth ...
and Langston Hughes created the
Golden Stair Press Golden means made of, or relating to gold. Golden may also refer to: Places United Kingdom *Golden, in the parish of Probus, Cornwall *Golden Cap, Dorset * Golden Square, Soho, London *Golden Valley, a valley on the River Frome in Gloucestersh ...
, issuing broadsides and books featuring the artwork of Prentiss Taylor and the texts of Langston Hughes. In 1932 they issued The Scottsboro Limited based on the trial of the Scottsboro Boys. In 1932, Hughes and Ellen Winter wrote a pageant to
Caroline Decker Caroline Decker Gladstein (born Caroline Dwofsky, April 26, 1912 – May 17, 1992) was a labor activist in the 1930s in California. A member of the Communist Party, as many activists were, she was an organizer for the Cannery and Agricultural Wo ...
in an attempt to celebrate her work with the striking coal miners of the Harlan County War, but it was never performed. It was judged to be a "long, artificial propaganda vehicle too complicated and too cumbersome to be performed."Anne Loftis (1998), ''Witnesses to the Struggle'', p. 46, University of Nevada Press, . Maxim Lieber became his literary agent, 1933–45 and 1949–50. (Chambers and Lieber worked in the underground together around 1934–35.) Hughes' first collection of short stories was published in 1934 with '' The Ways of White Folks''. He finished the book at a Carmel, California cottage provided for a year by Noel Sullivan, another patron. These stories are a series of vignettes revealing the humorous and tragic interactions between whites and blacks. Overall, they are marked by a general pessimism about race relations, as well as a sardonic realism. He also became an advisory board member to the (then) newly formed
San Francisco Workers' School The San Francisco Workers' School was an ideological training center of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) established in San Francisco for adult education in 1934. "It was a typical specimen of a Communist school, such as would come under investig ...
(later the California Labor School). In 1935, Hughes received a
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
. The same year that Hughes established his theatre troupe in Los Angeles, he realized an ambition related to films by co-writing the screenplay for '' Way Down South''. Hughes believed his failure to gain more work in the lucrative movie trade was due to racial discrimination within the industry. In Chicago, Hughes founded ''The Skyloft Players'' in 1941, which sought to nurture black playwrights and offer theatre "from the black perspective." Soon thereafter, he was hired to write a column for the '' Chicago Defender'', in which he presented some of his "most powerful and relevant work", giving voice to black people. The column ran for twenty years. Hughes also mentored writer Richard Durham who would later produce a sequence about Hughes in the radio series '' Destination Freedom''. In 1943, Hughes began publishing stories about a character he called Jesse B. Semple, often referred to and spelled "Simple", the everyday black man in Harlem who offered musings on topical issues of the day. Although Hughes seldom responded to requests to teach at colleges, in 1947 he taught at Atlanta University. In 1949, he spent three months at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools as a visiting lecturer. Between 1942 and 1949, Hughes was a frequent writer and served on the editorial board of ''
Common Ground Common Ground may refer to: Books and periodicals * ''Common Ground'' (Lukas book), by J. Anthony Lukas * ''Common Ground'' (magazine), a literary magazine published quarterly between 1941 and 1949 * ''Common Ground'' (memoir), by Canadian po ...
'', a literary magazine focused on cultural pluralism in the United States published by the Common Council for American Unity (CCAU). He wrote novels, short stories, plays, poetry, operas, essays, and works for children. With the encouragement of his best friend and writer,
Arna Bontemps Arna Wendell Bontemps ( ) (October 13, 1902 – June 4, 1973) was an American poet, novelist and librarian, and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance. Early life Bontemps was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, into a Louisiana Creole family. His a ...
, and patron and friend, Carl Van Vechten, he wrote two volumes of autobiography, ''The Big Sea'' and ''I Wonder as I Wander'', as well as translating several works of literature into English. With Bontemps, Hughes co-edited the 1949 anthology ''The Poetry of the Negro'', described by '' The New York Times'' as "a stimulating cross-section of the imaginative writing of the Negro" that demonstrates "talent to the point where one questions the necessity (other than for its social evidence) of the specialization of 'Negro' in the title". From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, Hughes' popularity among the younger generation of black writers varied even as his reputation increased worldwide. With the gradual advance toward
racial integration Racial integration, or simply integration, includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation). In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity ...
, many black writers considered his writings of black pride and its corresponding subject matter out of date. They considered him a racial chauvinist. He found some new writers, among them
James Baldwin James Arthur Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer. He garnered acclaim across various media, including essays, novels, plays, and poems. His first novel, '' Go Tell It on the Mountain'', was published in 1953; de ...
, lacking in such pride, over-intellectual in their work, and occasionally vulgar. Hughes wanted young black writers to be objective about their race, but not to scorn it or flee it. He understood the main points of the Black Power movement of the 1960s, but believed that some of the younger black writers who supported it were too angry in their work. Hughes's work ''Panther and the Lash'', posthumously published in 1967, was intended to show solidarity with these writers, but with more skill and devoid of the most virulent anger and racial chauvinism some showed toward whites. Hughes continued to have admirers among the larger younger generation of black writers. He often helped writers by offering advice and introducing them to other influential persons in the literature and publishing communities. This latter group, including Alice Walker, whom Hughes discovered, looked upon Hughes as a hero and an example to be emulated within their own work. One of these young black writers ( Loften Mitchell) observed of Hughes:
Langston set a tone, a standard of brotherhood and friendship and cooperation, for all of us to follow. You never got from him, 'I am ''the'' Negro writer,' but only 'I am ''a'' Negro writer.' He never stopped thinking about the rest of us.Rampersad, 1988, vol. 2, p. 409.


Political views

Hughes was drawn to Communism as an alternative to a segregated America. Many of his lesser-known political writings have been collected in two volumes published by the University of Missouri Press and reflect his attraction to Communism. An example is the poem "A New Song". In 1932, Hughes became part of a group of black people who went to the Soviet Union to make a film depicting the plight of African Americans in the United States. The film was never made, but Hughes was given the opportunity to travel extensively through the Soviet Union and to the Soviet-controlled regions in Central Asia, the latter parts usually closed to Westerners. While there, he met Robert Robinson, an African American living in Moscow and unable to leave. In Turkmenistan, Hughes met and befriended the Hungarian author Arthur Koestler, then a Communist who was given permission to travel there. As later noted in Koestler's autobiography, Hughes, together with some forty other Black Americans, had originally been invited to the Soviet Union to produce a Soviet film on "Negro Life", but the Soviets dropped the film idea because of their 1933 success in getting the US to recognize the Soviet Union and establish an embassy in Moscow. This entailed a toning down of Soviet propaganda on racial segregation in America. Hughes and his fellow Blacks were not informed of the reasons for the cancelling, but he and Koestler worked it out for themselves. Hughes also managed to travel to China, Japan, and Korea before returning to the States. Hughes's poetry was frequently published in the CPUSA newspaper and he was involved in initiatives supported by Communist organizations, such as the drive to free the Scottsboro Boys. Partly as a show of support for the Republican faction during the Spanish Civil War, in 1937 Hughes traveled to Spain as a correspondent for the ''Baltimore Afro-American'' and other various African-American newspapers. In August 1937, he broadcast live from Madrid alongside Harry Haywood and
Walter Benjamin Garland Walter Benjamin Garland (27 November 1913 – January 1974) was an American soldier, activist, and politician. Garland was a volunteer in the Washington Battalion of the XV International Brigade fighting for Republican Spain during the Spanish C ...
. When Hughes was in Spain a Spanish Republican cultural magazine, ''
El Mono Azul ''El Mono Azul'' ( Spanish: ''Blue Overalls'') was an anti-fascist magazine which was published in Madrid during the Spanish Civil War. The magazine existed between 1936 and 1939 and was one of the major cultural, intellectual and artistic publi ...
'', featured Spanish translations of his poems. In November 1937 Hughes departed Spain for which ''El Mono Azul'' published a brief farewell message entitled “el gran poeta de raza negra” (“the great poet of the black race”). Hughes was also involved in other Communist-led organizations such as the John Reed Clubs and the League of Struggle for Negro Rights. He was more of a sympathizer than an active participant. He signed a 1938 statement supporting Joseph Stalin's
purges In history, religion and political science, a purge is a position removal or execution of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, another organization, their team leaders, or society as a whole. A group unde ...
and joined the American Peace Mobilization in 1940 working to keep the U.S. from participating in World War II.Langston Hughes (2001), ''Fight for Freedom and Other Writings'', University of Missouri Press, p. 9. Hughes initially did not favor black American involvement in the war because of the persistence of discriminatory U.S. Jim Crow laws and racial segregation and disfranchisement throughout the South. He came to support the war effort and black American participation after deciding that war service would aid their struggle for civil rights at home. The scholar
Anthony Pinn Anthony B. Pinn is an American professor working at the intersections of African-American religion, constructive theology, and humanist thought. Pinn is the Agnes Cullen Arnold Professor of Humanities and Professor of Religious Studies at Rice Uni ...
has noted that Hughes, together with Lorraine Hansberry and Richard Wright, was a humanist "critical of belief in God. They provided a foundation for nontheistic participation in social struggle." Pinn has found that such writers are sometimes ignored in the narrative of American history that chiefly credits the civil rights movement to the work of affiliated Christian people. Hughes was accused of being a Communist by many on the political right, but he always denied it. When asked why he never joined the Communist Party, he wrote, "it was based on strict discipline and the acceptance of directives that I, as a writer, did not wish to accept." In 1953, he was called before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations led by Senator
Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...
. He stated, "I never read the theoretical books of socialism or communism or the Democratic or Republican parties for that matter, and so my interest in whatever may be considered political has been non-theoretical, non-sectarian, and largely emotional and born out of my own need to find some way of thinking about this whole problem of myself." Following his testimony, Hughes distanced himself from Communism.Leach, ''Langston Hughes: A Biography'' (2004), pp. 118–119. He was rebuked by some on the Radical Left who had previously supported him. He moved away from overtly political poems and towards more lyric subjects. When selecting his poetry for his ''Selected Poems'' (1959) he excluded all his radical socialist verse from the 1930s. These critics on the Left were unaware of the secret interrogation that took place days before the televised hearing.


Representation in other media

Hughes was featured reciting his poetry on the album '' Weary Blues'' (MGM, 1959), with music by
Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz upright bassist, pianist, composer, bandleader, and author. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and ...
and Leonard Feather, and he also contributed lyrics to Randy Weston's ''
Uhuru Afrika ''Uhuru Afrika'' (subtitled/translated as ''Freedom Africa'') is an album by American jazz pianist Randy Weston recorded in 1960 and originally released on the Roulette label. The album features lyrics and liner notes by the poet Langston Hughes a ...
'' (Roulette, 1960). Composer Mira Pratesi Sulpizi set Hughes’ text to music in her 1968 song “Lyrics.” Hughes' life has been portrayed in film and stage productions since the late 20th century. In '' Looking for Langston'' (1989), British filmmaker Isaac Julien claimed him as a black gay icon—Julien thought that Hughes' sexuality had historically been ignored or downplayed. Film portrayals of Hughes include Gary LeRoi Gray's role as a teenage Hughes in the short subject film ''Salvation'' (2003) (based on a portion of his autobiography ''The Big Sea''), and Daniel Sunjata as Hughes in the '' Brother to Brother'' (2004). ''Hughes' Dream Harlem'', a documentary by Jamal Joseph, examines Hughes' works and environment. ''Paper Armor'' (1999) by Eisa Davis and ''Hannibal of the Alps'' (2005) by Michael Dinwiddie are plays by African-American playwrights that address Hughes's sexuality. Spike Lee's 1996 film '' Get on the Bus'', included a black gay character, played by Isaiah Washington, who invokes the name of Hughes and punches a homophobic character, saying: "This is for James Baldwin and Langston Hughes." Hughes was also featured prominently in a national campaign sponsored by the
Center for Inquiry The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a US nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal, as well as to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 199 ...
(CFI) known as
African Americans for Humanism The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a US nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal, as well as to fight the influence of religion in government. History The Center for Inquiry was established in 199 ...
. Hughes' ''Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz'', written in 1960, was performed for the first time in March 2009 with specially composed music by Laura Karpman at
Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...
, at the ''Honor'' festival curated by Jessye Norman in celebration of the African-American cultural legacy. ''Ask Your Mama'' is the centerpiece of "The Langston Hughes Project", a multimedia concert performance directed by Ron McCurdy, professor of music in the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. The European premiere of The Langston Hughes Project, featuring Ice-T and McCurdy, took place at the
Barbican Centre The Barbican Centre is a performing arts centre in the Barbican Estate of the City of London and the largest of its kind in Europe. The centre hosts classical and contemporary music concerts, theatre performances, film screenings and art exhi ...
, London, on November 21, 2015, as part of the London Jazz Festival mounted by music producers Serious. The novel ''Harlem Mosaics'' (2012) by Whit Frazier depicts the friendship between Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, and tells the story of how their friendship fell apart during their collaboration on the play ''Mule Bone''. On September 22, 2016, his poem " I, Too" was printed on a full page of ''The New York Times'' in response to the riots of the previous day in Charlotte, North Carolina.


Literary archives

The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University holds the Langston Hughes papers (1862–1980) and the Langston Hughes collection (1924–1969) containing letters, manuscripts, personal items, photographs, clippings, artworks, and objects that document the life of Hughes. The Langston Hughes Memorial Library on the campus of Lincoln University, as well as at the James Weldon Johnson Collection within the Yale University also hold archives of Hughes' work. The Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University includes materials acquired from his travels and contacts through the work of
Dorothy B. Porter Dorothy Louise Porter Wesley (May 25, 1905 – December 17, 1995) was a librarian, bibliographer and curator, who built the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center at Howard University into a world-class research collection. She was the first African ...
.


Honors and awards


Living

* 1926: Hughes won the Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry Prize. * 1935: Hughes was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
, which allowed him to travel to Spain and Russia. * 1941: Hughes was awarded a fellowship from the Rosenwald Fund. * 1943: Lincoln University awarded Hughes an honorary Litt.D. * 1954: Hughes won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. * 1960: the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
awarded Hughes the
Spingarn Medal The Spingarn Medal is awarded annually by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for an outstanding achievement by an African American. The award was created in 1914 by Joel Elias Spingarn Joel Elias Spingarn (May ...
for distinguished achievements by an African American. * 1961: National Institute of Arts and Letters. * 1963: Howard University awarded Hughes an honorary doctorate. * 1964: Western Reserve University awarded Hughes an honorary Litt.D.


Memorial

* 1973: the first
Langston Hughes Medal The Langston Hughes Medal has been awarded annually by the Langston Hughes Festival of the City College of New York since 1978. The medal "is awarded to highly distinguished writers from throughout the African American diaspora for their impressi ...
was awarded by the
City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...
. * 1979: Langston Hughes Middle School was created in
Reston, Virginia Reston is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia and a principal city of the Washington metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, Reston's population was 63,226. Founded in 1964, Reston was influenced by the Garden City movem ...
. * 1981: New York City Landmark status was given to the Harlem home of Langston Hughes at 20 East 127th Street () by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and 127th Street was renamed "Langston Hughes Place". The Langston Hughes House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. * 2002: The United States Postal Service added the image of Langston Hughes to its Black Heritage series of postage stamps. * 2002: scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Langston Hughes on his list of ''
100 Greatest African Americans ''100 Greatest African Americans'' is a biographical dictionary of one hundred historically great Black Americans (in alphabetical order; that is, they are not ranked), as assessed by Temple University professor Molefi Kete Asante in 2002. A s ...
''. * 2009:
Langston Hughes High School Langston Hughes High School (LHHS) is a public secondary school located in Fairburn, Georgia, United States, a suburb of metropolitan Atlanta. LHHS is in South Fulton County adjacent to Renaissance Elementary and Renaissance Middle School. Hist ...
was created in Fairburn, Georgia. * 2012: inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. * 2015: Google Doodle commemorated his 113th birthday.


Bibliography


Poetry collections

* '' The Weary Blues'', Knopf, 1926 * ''
Fine Clothes to the Jew ''Fine Clothes to the Jew'' is a 1927 poetry collection by Langston Hughes published by Alfred A. Knopf. Because it departed from sentimental depictions of African-American culture, the collection was widely criticized, especially in the Black ...
'', Knopf, 1927 * ''The Negro Mother and Other Dramatic Recitations'', 1931 * ''Dear Lovely Death'', 1931 * ''The Dream Keeper and Other Poems'', Knopf, 1932 * ''Scottsboro Limited: Four Poems and a Play'', Golden Stair Press, N.Y., 1932 * ''A New Song'' (1938, incl. the poem " Let America be America Again") * ''
Note on Commercial Theatre "Note on Commercial Theatre" is a poem by Langston Hughes written in 1940 and republished in 2008. Background and analysis Langston Hughes was a prominent writer during the Harlem Renaissance, which is obvious in most of his poetry. Hughes writ ...
'', 1940 * ''Shakespeare in Harlem'', Knopf, 1942 * ''Freedom's Plow'', New York: Musette Publishers, 1943 * ''Jim Crow's Last Stand'', Atlanta: Negro Publication Society of America, 1943 * '' Lament for Dark Peoples and Other Poems'', 1944 * ''Fields of Wonder'', Knopf, 1947 * ''One-Way Ticket'', 1949 * ''
Montage of a Dream Deferred ''Montage of a Dream Deferred'' is a book-length poem suite published by Langston Hughes in 1951. Its jazz poetry style focuses on scenes over the course of a 24-hour period in Harlem (a neighborhood of New York City) and its mostly African-Americ ...
'', Holt, 1951 * ''Selected Poems of Langston Hughes'', 1958 * ''Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz'', Hill & Wang, 1961 * ''The Panther and the Lash: Poems of Our Times'', 1967 * ''The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes'', Knopf, 1994


Novels and short story collections

* ''
Not Without Laughter ''Not Without Laughter'' is the debut novel by Langston Hughes published in 1930. Plot introduction ''Not Without Laughter'' portrays African-American life in Kansas in the 1910s, focusing on the effects of class and religion on the community. T ...
''. Knopf, 1930 * '' The Ways of White Folks'', Knopf, 1934 * ''Simple Speaks His Mind'', 1950 * ''Laughing to Keep from Crying'', Holt, 1952 * ''Simple Takes a Wife'', 1953 * ''
The Sweet Flypaper of Life ' is a 1955 fiction and photography book by American photographer Roy DeCarava and American writer Langston Hughes. DeCarava's photos and Hughes's story, told through the character Sister Mary Bradley, depict and describe Black family life in Ha ...
'', photographs by Roy DeCarava. 1955 * ''Simple Stakes a Claim'', 1957 * ''Tambourines to Glory'', 1958 * ''The Best of Simple'', 1961 * ''Simple's Uncle Sam'', 1965 * ''Something in Common and Other Stories'', Hill & Wang, 1963 * ''Short Stories of Langston Hughes'', Hill & Wang, 1996


Non-fiction books

* ''The Big Sea'', New York: Knopf, 1940 * ''Famous American Negroes'', 1954 * ''Famous Negro Music Makers'', New York: Dodd, Mead, 1955 * ''I Wonder as I Wander'', New York: Rinehart & Co., 1956 * ''A Pictorial History of the Negro in America'', with Milton Meltzer. 1956 * ''Famous Negro Heroes of America'', 1958 * ''Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP''. 1962 * ''Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the Negro in American Entertainment,'' with Milton Meltzer, 1967


Major plays

* '' Mule Bone'', with Zora Neale Hurston, 1931 * ''
Mulatto (, ) is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed African and European ancestry. Its use is considered outdated and offensive in several languages, including English and Dutch, whereas in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese is ...
'', 1935 (renamed ''The Barrier'', an opera, in 1950) * '' Troubled Island'', with William Grant Still, 1936 * ''Little Ham'', 1936 * ''Emperor of Haiti'', 1936 * ''Don't You Want to be Free?'', 1938 * ''
Street Scene A street scene () is a basic model for epic theater set forth by Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and ...
'', contributed lyrics, 1947 * '' Tambourines to Glory'', 1956 * '' Simply Heavenly'', 1957 * '' Black Nativity'', 1961 * ''Five Plays by Langston Hughes'', Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963 * ''
Jerico-Jim Crow ''Jerico-Jim Crow'' is a 1964 musical, with a book written by Langston Hughes and William Hairston. It was a pioneering work in the urban contemporary gospel musical style, based on the themes of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. A ...
'', 1964


Books for children

* ''Popo and Fifina, with Arna Bontemps'', 1932 * ''The First Book of the Negroes'', 1952 * ''The First Book of Jazz'', 1954 * '' Marian Anderson: Famous Concert Singer'', with Steven C. Tracy, 1954 * ''The First Book of Rhythms'', 1954 * ''The First Book of the West Indies'', 1956 * ''First Book of Africa'', 1964 * ''Black Misery'', illustrated by Arouni, 1969; reprinted 1994, Oxford University Press.


As editor

* ''The Poetry of the Negro, 1746–1949: an anthology'', edited with
Arna Bontemps Arna Wendell Bontemps ( ) (October 13, 1902 – June 4, 1973) was an American poet, novelist and librarian, and a noted member of the Harlem Renaissance. Early life Bontemps was born in Alexandria, Louisiana, into a Louisiana Creole family. His a ...
, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1949.


Other writings

* ''The Langston Hughes Reader'', New York: Braziller, 1958. * ''Good Morning Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings by Langston Hughes'', Lawrence Hill, 1973. * ''The Collected Works of Langston Hughes'', Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2001. * ''The Selected Letters of Langston Hughes'', edited by Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel. Knopf, 2014.
"My Adventures as a Social Poet" (essay)
''Phylon'', 3rd Quarter 1947.

''The Nation'', June 23, 1926.


See also

* African-American literature * Langston Hughes Society * Pan-Africanism


Notes


References

* Aldrich, Robert (2001). ''Who's Who in Gay & Lesbian History'', Routledge. * Bernard, Emily (2001). ''Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, 1925–1964'', Knopf. * Berry, Faith (1983.1992,). "Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond Harlem". In ''On the Cross of the South'', Citadel Press, p. 150; & ''Zero Hour'', pp. 185–186. * Chenrow, Fred; Chenrow, Carol (1973). ''Reading Exercises in Black History'', Volume 1, Elizabethtown, PA: The Continental Press, Inc. p. 36. . * Hughes, Langston (2001). "Fight for Freedom and Other Writings on Civil Rights" (''Collected Works of Langston Hughes,'' Vol. 10). In Christopher C. DeSantis (ed.). Introduction, p. 9. University of Missouri Press. * Hutson, Jean Blackwell; & Jill Nelson (February 1992). "Remembering Langston", '' Essence'', p. 96. * Joyce, Joyce A. (2004). "A Historical Guide to Langston Hughes". In Steven C. Tracy (ed.), ''Hughes and Twentieth-Century Genderracial Issues'', Oxford University Press, p. 136. * Nero, Charles I. (1997). "Re/Membering Langston: Homphobic Textuality and Arnold Rampersad's Life of Langston Hughes". In Martin Duberman (ed.), ''Queer Representations: Reading Lives, Reading Cultures'', New York University Press, p. 192. * Nero, Charles I. (1999). "Free Speech or Hate Speech: Pornography and its Means of Production". In Larry P. Gross & James D. Woods (eds), ''Columbia Reader on Lesbians and Gay Men in Media, Society, and Politics'', Columbia University Press, p. 500. * Nichols, Charles H. (1980). ''Arna Bontempts-Langston Hughes Letters, 1925–1967'', Dodd, Mead & Company. * Ostrom, Hans (1993). ''Langston Hughes: A Study of the Short Fiction'', New York: Twayne. * Ostrom, Hans (2002). ''A Langston Hughes Encyclopedia'', Westport: Greenwood Press. * Rampersad, Arnold (1986). ''The Life of Langston Hughes, Volume 1: I, Too, Sing America'', Oxford University Press. * Rampersad, Arnold (1988). ''The Life of Langston Hughes, Volume 2: I Dream A World''. Oxford University Press. * Schwarz, Christa A. B. (2003). "Langston Hughes: A true 'people's poet'". In ''Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance'', Indiana University Press, pp. 68–88. * West, Sandra L. (2003). "Langston Hughes". In Aberjhani & Sandra West (eds), ''Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance'', Checkmark Press, p. 162.


External links


Langston Hughes on Poets.org
With poems, related essays, and links.
Profile and poems of Langston Hughes, including audio files and scholarly essays
at the Poetry Foundation. * Cary Nelson

Profile at Modern American Poetry.

"Langston Hughes at 100".


Archives

* Langston Hughes Papers. James Weldon Johnson Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Langston Hughes Papers
at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research
Resources at Library of Congress
including audio.

* * * *
Langston Hughes collection from the Billops-Hatch Archives, 1926–2002

Langston Hughes collection from the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library, 1932–1969

Thyra Edwards' collection of Langston Hughes material, 1935–1941
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Langston 1901 births 1967 deaths African-American activists 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American poets 20th-century American short story writers Activists from New York (state) African-American dramatists and playwrights African-American novelists African-American poets African-American short story writers American columnists American expatriates in France American expatriates in the Soviet Union American male dramatists and playwrights American male non-fiction writers American male novelists American male poets American people of English descent American people of French descent American people of Jewish descent American people of Scottish descent Broadway composers and lyricists American writers of Native American descent Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Deaths from cancer in New York (state) Deaths from prostate cancer Harlem Renaissance Jazz poetry Langston family Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) alumni Novelists from New York (state) People from Joplin, Missouri People from Staten Island People from Westfield, New Jersey Spingarn Medal winners Translators of Gabriela Mistral Writers from Missouri Writers from New York City 20th-century translators Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters