Langston Hughes American Poet

Background Born James Langston Hughes in Joplin Missouri in 1902 His mother was a school teacher who wrote poetry His father was a storekeeper, who wanted to be a lawyer, but was denied from taking the bar exam. His parents separated when he was young, and Hughes lived with his grandmother and other friends and relatives for several years His parents were both of mixed-race origin.

Education Hughes attended high school in Cleveland ohio While in high school he wrote for the newspaper, edited the yearbook, and began to write short stories, poetry, and plays After high school, he lived with his father for a while in mexico. He convinced his father to send him to Columbia university in new York city, but he had to major in engineering Hughes dropped out because of racial prejudice, but he continued to write He worked several odd jobs, including working as a crewman on a boat, and he traveled throughout the world He eventually enrolled at Lincoln university in chester county Pennsylvania, where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1929

writing While living in new York city, hughes’s writing, in particular his poetry, was noticed and praised He was first published in 1921 in the NAACP publication, the crisis he became one of the leading writers of the harlem renaissance in the 1920s He was noted for included the rhythms of jazz music in his poetry His work highlighted the problems of racism, and he promoted young black artists His is widely considered one of the greatest African American writers