Langston Hughes Harlem Renaissance

Early Life Born 1902 in Missouri Mother and father divorced Father moved to Mexico They had poor relationship – his father disliked African Americans (yes he was HIMSELF African American) Mostly raised by maternal grandmother in Kansas She instilled in him a sense of racial pride Lived with mother again after maternal grandmother passed away Began writing poetry as a teen, inspired by Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman

Education Wrote “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” while living with his dad in Mexico Attended Columbia University for one year Left because of racial prejudice Got involved with Harlem Renaissance Spent the next 8 years working odd jobs and traveling Graduated from Lincoln University

Hughes’ Work Inspired others who helped him publish his work Vachel Lindsay Carl Van Vechten (The Weary Blues) Hughes talks about his subjects: “Workers, roustabouts, and singers, and job hunters on Lenox Avenue in New York, or Seventh Street in Washington or South State in Chicago—people up today and down tomorrow, working this week and fired the next, beaten and baffled, but determined not to be wholly beaten, buying furniture on the installment plan, filling the house with roomers to help pay the rent, hoping to get a new suit for Easter—and pawning that suit before the Fourth of July." 

Hughes’ Work Cont. Created comic book character Jesse B. Semple “A black Everyman that Hughes used to further explore urban, working-class black themes, and to address racial issues.” http://town.hall.org/Archives/radio/IMS/HarperAud io/052694_harp_ITH.html Toast to Harlem 3:45-4:52

Critical Reviews Hughes's early work was roundly criticized by many black intellectuals for portraying what they thought to be an “unattractive view of black life” “Hughes' tragedy was double-edged: he was unashamedly black at a time when blackness was démodé, and he didn't go much beyond one of his earliest themes, black is beautiful.”