Langston Hughes: Thinkers Of The Harlem Renaissance

Langston Hughes was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was an African-American cultural movement that focused on literature, music, theater, art, and politics. He has become most famous for how he portrays Black life in America. His writings told stories of the black American experience and a lot of his work has influenced the Black Arts Movement of the 1920’s. Langston was born February 1, 1902, in Missouri. he stayed with his grandmother because his mother moved around a lot while he was young. Although his family did a lot of moving, Hughes was a good student and excelled in his studies. Hughes real name is James Mercer Langston Hughes, the first signs of Hughes talent began

during his senior year at Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio, he was voted class poet and editor of the yearbook. Langston wrote for his school magazine and tried writing for other magazines but got denied. one of Hughes teachers first introduced him to the poetry of Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, which really influenced him in his writing. His poetry was loud and emotional in conveying his idea of the African-American dream. Most of his poetry either states how the black man is being suppressed or is a wish, a plea for equality. He does not want the black man to be better than everyone else, but just to be treated equal. His literary works helped shape American literature and politics. Hughes, like others in the Harlem Renaissance, had a strong sense of racial pride. Through his poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children's books, he promoted equality, condemned racism, and injustice, and celebrated African American culture, humor, and spirituality. He published his first poem in 1921 and published his first book in 1926. Langston enrolled at Columbia University to study engineering because that’s what his father wanted, he realized that wasn’t where his heart was and dropped