The Harlem Renaissance was a period from 1918-1937 where African American culture was truly expressed into our world. The Harlem Renaissance was the most influential African American movement that has happened to this day. There were many influential people that made it all possible. Without them or the entire African American community, we wouldn’t have what we have today in our diverse world.
One of the key people during the Harlem Renaissance was Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes was an African American novelist, poet, and playwright during the 1920s, or also known as the Harlem Renaissance. His poems and his plays are still read all around the world today. Langston Hughes started off his career of writing back when he was still in grade school. He continued to pursue his passion in writing poetry and became extremely talented. He became one of the most well know figures at that time and even now. Langston Hughes was a key component to the Harlem Renaissance because he gave the African American people at that time what it felt like to have hope and pride. He showed them what it was like to just be themselves and let their thoughts speak for themselves.
James Mercer Langston Hughes, later know as just Langston Hughes, was born on February 1, 1902, in the city of Joplin, Missouri. His parents separated right after the birth of Hughes while his father moved to Mexico and his mother continued to move around. Langston Hughes stayed with Mary, his grandmother until she died later when he was a teen. After her death, Langston Hughes moved back with his mother in Cleveland, Ohio. Once he started school, he met his teachers that played a primary role in introducing Langston Hughes into his later passion, poetry. His teachers, Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman are considered Hughes’ primary influences. After high school, he went to Mexico to live with his father for around a year. During this time, Langston Hughes published a highly talked about a poem called “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”.
Langston Hughes moved back to the states and attended college at Columbia University in New York City. During his time at Columbia University, he rarely spent his time studying but was more involved in Harlem’s cultural event known as the Harlem Renaissance. He began disliking attending school at Columbia University and decided it was going to be his last year. He went to college expecting it to be like high school but didn’t enjoy it. Soon, whites began accepting black artist and began to invade the streets of Harlem, New York. More and more of them were coming, so they soon began hosting parties in their own homes because they felt they were being examined by whites that came into the city of Harlem. After dropping out of college, he did what he wanted to do which was to find an apartment to stay in Harlem. He quickly found a job on a farm after going around being declined because of his skin color. After the harvest ended, he wanted to go explore more of the world, so he headed to Africa. Soon after his voyage, he was fired once reaching the shores of New York. Later, he traveled to Europe and later moved back to Harlem, which he missed the most.
After reuniting with his mother and brother in Washington D.C., he became interested in attending college once again, but didn’t have enough resources to attend. While working as a busboy, Langston Hughes copied three of his poems down and gave them to a poet named Vachel Lindsay. He found out the next morning that Vachel Lindsay found some of his poems. He later submitted a book of poems to his publisher with the help of a novelist and critic named Carl Van Vechten and resulted in his very first poetry book in 1926 called, “The Weary Blues”. He began to earn recognition from big publications and from Amy Spingarn. He talked with her about he truly wanted to go to Lincoln University which was in Pennsylvania. Hughes received a letter from Spingarn offering to pay all Langston’s tuition. While at college, he loved studying at college but hated the little amount of time he spent at Harlem. He became one of the first people the jazz dialects and some rhythms when publishing his second volume of poetry, “Fine Clothes to the Jew” in 1927. After graduating college in 1929, Hughes published his first novel that convinced to make a living off writing. From all his writings, he conveyed the message of slavery and the celebration of the African American culture.
Throughout his life, Langston Hughes continued to write poems and novels that deeply impacted the lives of African Americans during that time. Hughes ended up writing a column for the Chicago Defender newspaper and wrote an autobiography called, “The Big Sea” in 1940. He continued to push out many other amazing pieces of poetry and books counting down to his final years. Langston Hughes was one of the most influential and good people during the time of the Harlem Renaissance.
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Lincoln University (1926–1929), Columbia University (1921–1922)
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