Black History Month-Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes -- born February 1, 1902, in Joplin,
Missouri -- is usually considered the dean of American Negro poets. His parents
divorced when he was a child, and his father moved to Mexico. he was raised by
his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to
live with his mother and her husband, eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. It
was in Lincoln that Hughes began writing poetry.

Following graduation from high school, Hughes spent a year in
Mexico and a year at Columbia university. During these years, he held odd jobs
as an assistant cook, launderer, and a busboy, and traveled to Africa and Europe
working as a seaman. in November 1924, he moved to Washington, D.C. Hughes first
book of Poetry, The Weary Blues, was published by Alfred A Knopf in 1926. he
finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years
later. in 1930 his first novel, Not Without laughter, won the Harmon gold medal
for literature.

Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman were
Hughes primary literary influences. He is 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 influential in the shaping of what came
to be known as the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Unlike Claude McKay, Jean
Toomer, and Countee Cullen, Hughes identified fiercely his personal experience
with that of the common experiences of the American Negro. He wanted to tell
their stories that reflected their dignity, humor, suffering, and language.

Langston died of complications from prostate cancer May 22,
1967, in New York. In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in
Harlem, New York City, has been given landmark status by the New York City
Preservation Commission, and east 127th Street was renamed "Langston Hughes
Place."