Langston Hughes facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Langston Hughes
1936 photo by Carl Van Vechten
Born	James Mercer Langston Hughes (1902-02-01)February 1, 1902 Joplin, Missouri, U.S.
Died	May 22, 1967(1967-05-22) (aged 65) New York City, U.S.
Occupation	Poet, columnist, dramatist, essayist, novelist
Education	Lincoln University of Pennsylvania
Period	1926–1964

Langston Hughes (born 1902 – died 1967) was an American poet, novelist, and playwright. He was a very important writer during a time called the Harlem Renaissance. This was a period in the 1920s when many African-American artists, writers, and musicians created amazing works in Harlem, New York.

Hughes grew up in a poor family in Missouri. His ancestors were African people who were brought to America as slaves. In his time, many people didn't think much about their African roots. But Hughes was different. He traveled to West Africa to learn more about his own culture.

Through his poems, plays, and stories, Hughes helped black Americans feel proud of their heritage. He showed them they were part of a big, important group of people. Because of writers like him, the term "African-American" is now used with pride.

Langston Hughes became a famous writer. But he always remembered his humble beginnings. He spent his life helping and encouraging other writers who were just starting out.

Life
Works
Related pages
Images for kids
See also

Life

Early Years

Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His mother, Carrie Langston Hughes, was a teacher. His father, James Hughes, was very upset about the racism African-Americans faced. He left the family and moved to Mexico.

During his childhood, Langston was mostly raised by his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. His mother worked hard to support them. Langston's grandmother was a wonderful storyteller. Her stories made him feel proud to be an African-American.

After his grandmother passed away, Hughes and his mother moved many times. They finally settled in Cleveland. As a teenager, he lived in Lincoln, Illinois with his mother, who had remarried. He was often alone because his mother was at work. Even though his childhood was tough, he used these experiences in his writing. He started writing poetry while still in school. He never forgot his grandmother's stories. He always tried to help other African-Americans facing problems. These were the people he later wrote about in his own stories.

When Hughes went to school in Lincoln, there were only two African-American children in his class. His teacher talked to them about poetry. She said poems needed rhythm. Langston later joked that he had rhythm in his blood. The children even made him the "class poet."

At high school in Cleveland, Ohio, Langston learned to love reading. He especially loved the poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Carl Sandburg. He wrote for the school newspaper. He also edited the school yearbook. This is where he wrote his first short stories and plays.

College and Travel

When Langston Hughes was 17, he visited his father in Mexico. He was very unhappy there. Hughes found it hard to understand his father's feelings. He said, "I was a Negro, and I liked Negroes very much!"

Hughes later wrote this poem:

"The night is beautiful,

So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,

So the eyes of my people

Beautiful, also, is the sun.

Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people."

After finishing high school in 1920, he went back to Mexico. He wanted his father to pay for him to go to university. His father was a wealthy lawyer. He could afford to send Langston to college. But he made it difficult. He said Hughes could only go if he studied engineering overseas. Hughes wanted to study arts in the U.S.

They finally agreed he would go to Columbia University. But he had to study engineering. He started at Columbia in 1921. However, he left in 1922. One reason was the racism he experienced at the university.

Working and Writing

Until 1926, Hughes worked many different jobs. In 1923, he worked as a crewman on a ship called the "S.S. Malone." This trip took him to West Africa and Europe. He left the ship and stayed for a short time in Paris. There, he met other African-Americans living in the city.

In November 1924, Hughes returned to the U.S. He lived with his mother in Washington, D.C.. In 1925, he got a job helping Carter G. Woodson. Woodson worked for the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Hughes didn't like this job much. He didn't have enough time to write. So, he left and became a "busboy." This meant he wiped tables and washed dishes at a hotel. Hughes is sometimes called "The Busboy Poet" because of this.

While working at the hotel, some of his poems were published in magazines. They were also being collected for his first book of poetry. He met the poet Vachel Lindsay at the hotel. Lindsay helped make Hughes known as a new African-American poet.

In 1926, Hughes began studying at Lincoln University, Pennsylvania. He received help from people who supported artists, called patrons. These included Amy Spingarn and "Godmother" Charlotte Osgood Mason. Hughes earned his first degree in 1929. He later received other special degrees for his writing. For the rest of his life, except when he traveled, Hughes lived in Harlem, New York.

Hughes' life and work were a key part of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. He worked with other famous artists like Zora Neale Hurston and Aaron Douglas. Together, they started a magazine called Fire!! Devoted to Younger Negro Artists. Hughes and his friends sometimes disagreed with other African-American writers. They felt some writers looked down on those with darker skin, less education, or less money. Hughes always remembered the stories his grandmother told him about poor African-Americans. He never forgot those lessons.

In 1960, the NAACP gave Hughes the "Spingarn Medal." This award is for great achievements by an African American. Hughes became a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1961. In 1973, an award was named after him, the "Langston Hughes Medal."

Hughes became a very famous American poet. But he was always ready to help others. He especially helped young black writers. He worried that many young writers felt bad about themselves. He tried to help people feel pride. He wanted them not to worry about what others thought. He also tried to help young African-Americans avoid hating white Americans.

Hughes wrote:

"The younger Negro artists who create now intend to express

our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame.

If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not,

it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly, too.

The tom-tom cries, and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people

are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure

doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow,

strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain

free within ourselves."

(A tom-tom is an African drum)

Death

On May 22, 1967, Hughes passed away in New York City. He was 65 years old. His ashes are buried under the floor of the Langston Hughes Auditorium. This is in the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. Over his ashes is a beautiful African design called "Rivers." In the middle of the design are words from one of Hughes' poems: "My soul has grown deep like the rivers."

The Negro speaks of Rivers

I've known rivers:

I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the

flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln

went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy

bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I've known rivers:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Works

Langston Hughes wrote many different types of books. He wrote poems, stories, and plays. Here are some of his well-known works:

Poetry Collections

The Weary Blues. 1926
Fine Clothes to the Jew. 1927
The Dream Keeper and Other Poems. 1932
Shakespeare in Harlem. 1942
Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. 1958

Novels and Short Stories

Not Without Laughter. 1930
The Ways of White Folks. 1934
Simple Speaks His Mind. 1950

Plays

Mule Bone, with Zora Neale Hurston. 1931
Mulatto. 1935
Black Nativity. 1961

Harlem Renaissance

Images for kids

Hughes in 1902
Hughes at Lincoln University in 1928
Hughes's ashes are interred under a cosmogram medallion in the foyer of the Arthur Schomburg Center in Harlem
The Ways of White Folks, Hughes' first short story collection
Langston Hughes, 1943. Photo by Gordon Parks
The poem "Danse Africaine" as wall poem on a wall of the building at the Nieuwe Rijn [nl] 46, Leiden (Netherlands)