How Did Langston Hughes Influence The Harlem Renaissance

Harlem Renaissance & Hughes

The cultural, social, and artistic eruption which took place from 1917 to 1935 in Harlem, came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance. In Nathan Huggins book “Harlem Renaissance”, he explains how during this time Harlem, which is a district of Manhattan attracted African-American writers, musicians, poets, photographers, and many other types of artists (21). Many of the African-Americans who made the journey to the Harlem did so from the southern states. During this time in history the south was full of racial motivated crimes and racial injustices. Many African-Americans felt as if they could not express their talents without repercussions in the south. This is why there was such an explosion of the arts in Harlem at the time. The Harlem Renaissance was a flourishing movement, up until around the time the Great Depression hit the United States (Huggins 22). Many writers became known for their literature pieces during the Harlem Renaissance. One of the more popular writers during the Harlem Renaissance era was a man named Langston Hughes. Hughes was a central figure and his literature career thrived during the Harlem Renaissance. Patricia A. Johnson and Walter C. Farrell explain in “How Langston Hughes Used the Blues”, how Hughes wrote about the struggles African Americans endured, while often

incorporating the sound of blues into his poetry. He embraced black pride and culture through his literature, which made this artistic movement very important to Hughes and his development as a poet (55-61).
In the early 1900s many people from all around the country flocked to Harlem. Harlem attracted all kinds of people, people in search for work and also people who were educated individuals. Both of these classes of people contributed in making Harlem a culture thriving community (Huggins 27). By 1910, Harlem had a flourishing Negro middle class and became an African American neighborhood. According to Arthur P. Davis in “The Harlem of Langston Hughes’ Poetry”, the Harlem Renaissance was so much more than just a literacy and art movement. It was fueled by racial pride, and demands for equal civil and political rights (276).
The art and literature during the Harlem Renaissance was influenced by a variety of different cultural elements. Some of the more common influences were; slavery and the tragic experiences African-Americans took away from it, African-American traditions and African-American spirituality, black identity, heritage and pride, and also the effects of racism (Davis 277-279). Many writers wrote about the struggles African-Americans faced trying to be successful in America, and how they had a different road to pave in comparison to the white American. The Harlem Renaissance was a great time for African-Americans to express their culture, feelings, and traditions without fear. The African-American culture became a “thing”, often referred to as the “New Negro”, or “urbanized blacks” (Huggins 58-62). Many different arts expressed the “black way of life”, to name a few; jazz and blues music, poetry, and musical theater (Huggins 58-62).
The musical style produced by African-Americans at the time were becoming more and more appealing to white Americans. Many white writers and musical composers began to incorporate African-American themes and styles into their own work (Huggins 59). They did so by incorporating words from the poems written by African-American poets into their music. Whites also used rhythms and melodies from African-American music, such as jazz and blues (Huggins 59-60).
George Hutchinson explains in “The Harlem Renaissance in Black and White”, how although the Harlem Renaissance was mainly supported by black owned publications and businesses, whites also played a role in assisting and supporting the artistic movement (210-213). A lot of white business owners offered support and assistance to the aspiring artists. This helped unlock many doors regarding publication, which would have remained closed to the African-American community.
Dolan Hubbard explains in “Essays on Art, Race, Politics, and World Affairs: The Collected Works of Langston Hughes.”, How Langston Hughes was a well-known, if not the most well-known writer during the Harlem Renaissance and 20th century. This is due to the fact that the Harlem Renaissance was a time were African-Americans were restoring black pride and dignity. African-Americans were expressing their culture and traditions through the arts (281-283). Many of Langston Hughes literacy works during the Harlem Renaissance era told a tale of the average African-American in America. This made Langston Hughes a true inspiration to other writers during this time.
Hughes was such an inspiration because he encouraged other black poets to write about their own culture and heritage.

This made Hughes a central figure during the Harlem Renaissance, because he basically set the standard for other writers. Hughes mapped out what he believed African-American writers should be writing about in their literature. He encouraged African-American to be proud of who they were and where they came from, and to show that through their literacy works. In a bibliography about Hughes, the author wrote, “As a member of the Harlem Renaissance…he helped establish a vital African-American literature” (Kirszner and Mandell

920).
In “To the Negro Writers”, Hughes wrote about the powerful things Negro artists could do through their literacy work. For example, Hughes wrote, “We can reveal to the Negro Masses …our potential power to transform the now ugly face of the Southland into a region of peace and plenty” (Kirszner and Mandell 939). He also stated that through their literature pieces Negro writers could, “…Seek to unite blacks and whites in our country…on the solid ground of the daily working-class struggle to wipe out…all the old inequalities of the past” (Kirszner and Mandell 939). Hughes did achieve powerful things through his poetry. He truly did reach out and touch many people with his literature, both blacks and whites.
What Hughes spoke about in his literature, had to do with the everyday struggles the average African-American went through in America. This is just one of the many reasons why the Harlem Renaissance was such a huge factor in Hughes career as a poet. In “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”, Hughes wrote about what a young Negro poet said to him, and what Hughes had taken away from his statement. “I want to be a poet-not a Negro poet”. Hughes believed what the poet meant was, “I want to write like a white poet”: meaning subconsciously, “I would like to be a white poet,” meaning behind that “I want to be white” (Kirszner and Mandell 937). Hughes believed that African-American musicians and writers should base their work off of their own traditions, experiences and cultural heritage. Hughes states “Without going outside his race…there is sufficient matter to furnish a black artist with a lifetime of creative work” (Kirszner and Mandell 938).
Langston Hughes is known for his way of tying in the sound of blues music in his poetry. In fact, his poems now can be bought on a CD. Where there is music set to his poetry, and the words from his poems are sung. In 1927 Hughes wrote a poem titled, “Song for a Dark Girl”. The poem states three times “Way Down South in Dixie”, painting a picture in the readers head. Those choice of words paints a picture of the setting, which takes place in the south. Possibly somewhere like Mississippi or Alabama. As many know the south was definitely not known for its kindness to African-Americans in the early 1900s. In this poem Hughes is not the speaker, the speaker is a young black girl. The girl is not too young because she is old enough to have a lover. Hughes uses the word “girl” in the title instead of “woman” to give a sense of innocence (Hubbard 232). By doing so, Hughes makes the death of her lover seem more tragic because he had his life taken away at a young age. In this poem the speaker is singing, and by reading the poem one can tell she is singing the blues (Hubbard 232). The speaker is singing about the loss of her lover. “They hung my black lover/ to a cross road tree/ Way Down South in Dixie/ (Bruised body high in the air)/ I asked the white Lord Jesus/ What was the use of prayer” (Kirszner and Mandell 926) (Line 1-7). In this poem Hughes is expressing to the reader a painful racial injustice. He’s enlightening the reader through this poem and showing the pain and injustices that his people (African-Americans) endured.
In this poem Hughes describes where the man the girl loved was hung. He was hung to a “cross roads tree”, which is literally a tree that’s located at an intersection where roads cross. This indicates to the reader that the murder took place in a public setting. The people who hung the man didn’t try to hide the crime they committed. The poem indicates that the murders wanted others to see the body hanging, possibly as a warning to other African-Americans (Hubbard 233). This also makes the reader realize that the majority of whites in the south truly had no value for black lives. Hughes describes the body as bruised and hanging, he is painting a tragic picture and trying to force people to see the horrible reality of the racial injustices. In the poem Hughes describes “Lord Jesus” as white, and asks “What was the use of Prayer”. By doing so “Hughes calls into question the access black Americans have to a white God” (Hubbard 233). Through this poem Hughes is successfully able to express the injustices African-Americans endured.
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, is one of Hughes most famous poems. In this poem he addresses slavery, and how Africans have traveled many rivers throughout history. Hughes writes about his Ancestors and how they lived in tribal life in Africa. It gives a sense of peace when the reader reads this line, “I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep” (Kirszner and Mandell 924) (Line 6). Hughes is describing the time before Africans were taken from their homeland. He describes African culture and their way of life before they were slaves when he writes “I built my hut”. This is another prime example of how Hughes incorporates black tradition and culture into his poetry. He also mentions the Nile River, and how he “raised the pyramids above it” (Kirszner and Mandell 924) (Line 7). Hughes is referring to another time in history, where his ancestors built 7 magnificent pyramids along the Nile River. Again, Hughes is writing about African Culture. The two references to the Nile and Congo River seem to bring light and happiness about the African culture. The poem then takes a dark turn where Hughes writes “I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down” (Kirszner and Mandell 924) (Line 7). Here Hughes is referring to the Mississippi river, the river where many slaves were sold and traveled down to the southern states. In line 7, Hughes was referring to the time when President Abraham Lincoln traveled down the river. President Lincoln rode a raft down the Mississippi river and saw the true horror of slavery. This is when he decided to end slavery in America. (Kirzsner and Mandell 946). Hughes expressed the history of Africans uniquely throughout this poem. Shedding light onto what the 1920s era African-Americans had endured and overcome to be in “free” in America.
These are two poems that adequately show what made Langston Hughes’s poems so remarkably popular during the Harlem Renaissance. Before the Harlem Renaissance era, a poem that expressed the injustices of African-Americans and their traditions and culture wouldn’t have been published. Especially if the poems were written by a black man. This is one of the main reasons Hughes career was launched during that era, the door had opened for the “Negro poet” and they were able to express themselves freely. Hughes wrote about the aspects of the African American life that was flourishing during that era, tradition, culture, and racial injustices. Thus making the Harlem Renaissance a vital factor in Hughes development as a poet.