Langston Hughes Analysis

The poet, Langston Hughes, was an iconic contributor to the Harlem Renaissance and an avid promoter of racial equality in America. His works were politically fueled and contained powerful messages that related to the everyday struggle and hardship faced by the African American population. Hughes spoke often of his dream of an equal America, and although his dream was not completely fulfilled in his lifetime, he remained faithful to the, then idealistic, view of an equal America.

When analyzing politically fueled persons throughout history, we must first establish their motives and how their views were formed in relation to the time period as author, Anthony Dawahare, stated that, “To better understand Hughes’s challenge we must first consider

Malone, personal assistant to a historian, and as a busboy for a hotel in Washington DC until being discovered by the poet, Vachel Lindsay, who connected Hughes with an editor. After getting publicity from that encounter, Langston Hughes published a book compiling his previously published works.

In the next year, Hughes attended Lincoln University and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1929. During and after his time at Lincoln University Hughes published his works regularly, he also helped write and publish the magazine, Fire!!, which was focused on the African American population and addressed controversial issues (such as color prejudice and interracial relationships). Although Fire!! was short lived (with only one issue released), it was one of the many ways Hughes tried to influence the African American and white communities for his ultimate goal of racial equality.

Through the making of Fire!!, Hughes become more passionate about the equality movement and became a valuable part of the Harlem Renaissance movement along with other artists such as, Rudolf Fisher, Zora Neale Hurston, Nella Larsen, Weldon Johnson, as well as Claude

His work, “Aunt Sue’s Stories”, about his experiences with his grandmother, Mary Langston, goes to show the deep history Hughes’s family had with racial discrimination and their fight for racial equality and how Hughes’s was instilled with these beliefs as a child. These conversations with Hughes’s grandmother greatly influenced his political views as reflected in “Aunt Sue’s Stories”. After the young boy in the poem (taken as a young Hughes) being told of the slaves, “Singing sorrow songs…” and the child’s response, “And the dark faced child listening, / Knows that Aunt Sue’s stories are real stories. / He knows that Aunt Sue never got her stories / Out of any book at all, / But that they came / Right out of her own life.” (Hughes 722) shown in this work, from an early age, the importance of race in America was instilled in Hughes, and his grandmother’s stories had a lasting effect on him. The majority of Hughes works were racially fueled, and several had lasting effects on the community. In his poem, “I, Too”, Hughes wrote about segregation and his hope for the future of America. In it he says, “They send me to eat in the kitchen. / When company comes, / But I laugh ....Tomorrow, / I’ll be at the table / When company comes. / Nobody’ll dare / Say to me, / “Eat in the kitchen,” “ (Hughes 708). While the fight was long, and there was no near end in sight at that