Langston Hughes: Harlem Renaissance

Langston Hughes was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, which was the African American artistic movement in the 1920s that celebrated black life and culture. Hughes's creative genius was influenced by his life in New York City's Harlem, a primarily African American neighborhood. His literary works helped shape American literature and politics. Hughes, like others active in the Harlem Renaissance, had a strong sense of racial pride. Through his poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children's books, he promoted equality, condemned racism and injustice, and celebrated African American culture, humor, and spirituality.
Langston Hughes humble beginnings played a huge role on his poetic work throughout his life. He parents separated at an early age and he was primarily raised by his grandmother. His father moved to Mexico and him and his mother for extensive periods of time due searching for work. His mother remarried and he went to live with her and his stepfather in Illinois. They eventually settled in Ohio. Langston developed a deep admiration for those he called “low-down folks”, which were the middle class and the poor people who had a strong sense of emotion and pride. Those “low-down folks” had the greatest influence on his poetry. Hughes used this expression as a form of praise. Hughes began writing poetry in high school and he gained recognition and support among black activist. Some of his admirers were infamous in their own right such as W.E.B Du Bois. Du Bois was a, Journalist, Educator, and Civil Rights Activist. He was the first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard and he co-founded the NAACP. Another admire Hughes work …show more content…
At the age of 22 while on his second trip, he wrote his fist great poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” “I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the word and older than the flow of human blood in human