The Life and Times of Langston Hughes

Hughes and his mother

Arguably one of the greatest African-American poets of all time, James Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri (Meltzer 3). His parents were divorced when he was a small child and his father moved to Mexico. He was raised by his grandmother until he was twelve, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her new husband (Rampersad 5). Hughes began writing poetry in the eighth grade. Also in the eighth grade, he was selected as Class Poet. During high school, Langston’s father did not think he would be able to make a living as a writer. Following graduation, he spent a year in Mexico where his father encouraged him to pursue a more practical career (Langston Hughes). In 1921, Langston’s father paid his tuition to Columbia University in New York City, on the basis, he studies engineering. After a short time, Hughes dropped out of the program with a B+ average. He then spent the next year travelling to Africa and Europe.

Hughes moved to Harlem, New York, in November 1924. Hughes first book of poetry, “The Weary Blues”, was published in 1926 (Tracy 35) . He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. Hughes is particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties. He wrote novels, short stories and plays, as well as poetry, and is also known for his engagement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing, as in “Montage of a Dream Deferred.” His life and work were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Langston Hughes, for most of his adult life, the unofficial Poet Laureate of the race, accepted as his vocation “to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America” (Poetry for Young People 42). Hughes’ poetry drew from traditional sources and individual voices; his experiments in form reflect an attempt to capture the myriad colors known collectively as “black”. His composition speaks not for Hughes the man, but for the race as a whole. Unlike other notable black poets of the period--Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, and Countee Cullen--Hughes refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of black America. He wanted to tell the stories of his people without personalizing them, so the reader could step in and draw their own conclusions. 

Hughes challenged society’s definition of equality and brought attention to the treatment of the black man in America. Because of segregation, the impact of slavery, and racism, blacks were poorer and less educated than whites were at the time. Hughes was very smart and attended college, but he realized his audience did not have the opportunities he had (Poetry for Young People 42). Because of this reason, Hughes wrote in a manner in which everybody could understand. He used common but powerful words, and still got his point across. In “Children's Rhymes” he writes in the same style you would find in a children’s book, but the poems are meant for adults. The poems, using small common words, as well as slang, are easy to relate to. Short but meaningful, his works embody a feeling of struggle, inequality, and oppression.

Langston Hughes died on May 22, 1967 at age 65 in New York City after having an abdominal surgery (Langston Hughes). During his lifetime, he wrote sixteen books of poems, two novels, three collections of short stories, twenty plays, children’s poetry, musicals and operas, three autobiographies, a dozen radio and television scripts, dozens of magazine articles, and many other things. In addition, he edited seven anthologies. Langston Hughes’ poems told about the joys and miseries of the ordinary black man in America and he will forever be known for it.