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{{Infobox Writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]] -->
| name = James Langston Hughes
| image = LangstonHughe_25.jpg
| caption =
| birthdate = {{birth date|1902|2|1|mf=y}}
| birthplace = [[Joplin, Missouri]],<br> United States
| deathdate = {{death date and age|1967|5|22|1902|2|1}}
| deathplace = [[New York City|New York]], [[New York]],<br> United States
| occupation = [[poet]], [[columnist]], [[dramatist]], [[essayist]], [[lyricist]], [[novelist]], [[social activist]], [[writer]]
| nationality =
| ethnicity = [[African-American]] and [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]]
| alma_mater = [[Lincoln University]]
| period = 1926-1964
}}


Black poet who wrote some stuff
'''James Mercer Langston Hughes''', best known as '''Langston Hughes''', (February 1, 1902 &ndash; May 22, 1967) was an American [[poet]], [[novel]]ist, [[playwright]], [[short story]] writer, and [[columnist]]. Hughes is known for his work during the [[Harlem Renaissance]].
==Biography==
===Childhood===
[[Image:Langston Hughes 1902.jpg|thumb|left|Langston Hughes as a baby in 1902, photograph [[Yale University]] Collection of American Literature, [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]]]] James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in [[Joplin, Missouri|Joplin]], [[Missouri]], the second child of Carrie (Caroline) Mercer Langston (a school teacher) and her husband James Nathaniel Hughes. Both parents were mixed-race; Langston was of [[African American]], [[European American]] and [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] descent. He grew up in the African-American community.<ref name="scholar">{{cite web |url=http://redblackscholars.wearetheones.org/scholarship.html|title=African-Native American Scholars|author= |accessdate=2008-07-30 |year=2008 |publisher=African-Native American Scholars}}</ref> Both of James N. Hughes' grandmothers were African American, and both his grandfathers were white: one of [[Scottish]] and one of [[Jewish]] descent.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?id=4pibsBTGIssC&pg=PA3&sig=sIN4eNTewmtRJZTEr5Vmj7MuyRM&dq=james+mercer+langston+%221888%22+%229+As+lawyer,+politician,+Freedman%27s+Bureau+appointee,+college+administrator,+diplomat+and,+in+1888,+the+first+Afro-American+Representative+to+Congress+from+Virginia,+Langston+had+become+a+legend+in+his+own+time.+%22#PPA1,M1 Faith Berry, ''Langston Hughes, Before and Beyond Harlem'', Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill & Co., 1983; reprint, Citadel Press, 1992, p.1]</ref>

James Mercer Langston Hughes was named after both his father and his great-uncle, [[John Mercer Langston]], in 1888 the first black to be elected to the [[United States Congress]] from [[Virginia]]. His grandmother Mary Patterson was of African, French, English and Native American descent. One of the first women to attend [[Oberlin College]], she first married [[Lewis Sheridan Leary]], also of mixed race. He joined the men in [[John Brown's Raid]] on [[Harper's Ferry]] in 1859 and died from his wounds.

In 1869 Mary Patterson Leary married again, into the elite, politically active Langston family. Her second husband was [[Charles Henry Langston]], of African, American Indian and Euro-American ancestry.<ref name="kshs.org">[http://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/1999winter_sheridan.pdf Richard B. Sheridan, "Charles Henry Langston and the African American Struggle in Kansas"], ''Kansas State History'', Winter 1999, accessed 15 Dec 2008</ref>
<ref>Laurie F. Leach, ''Langston Hughes: A Biography'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, pp.2-4</ref> He and his younger brother [[John Mercer Langston]] worked for the abolitionist cause and helped lead the [[Ohio Anti-Slavery Society]] in 1858. Charles Langston later moved to Kansas where he was active as an educator and activist for voting and rights for black Americans.<ref name="kshs.org"/> Charles and Mary's daughter Caroline Mercer Langston was the mother of Langston Hughes.<ref>William and Aimee Lee Cheek, "John Mercer Langston: Principle and Politics", in Leon F. Litwack and August Meier, eds., ''Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century'', University of Illinois Press, 1991, pp. 106-111</ref>

James Hughes left his family and later divorced Carrie. He went to [[Cuba]], and then [[Mexico]], seeking to escape the enduring racism in the United States.<ref>West, ''Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance'', 2003, p.160</ref> After the separation of his parents, young Langston was raised mainly by his maternal grandmother Mary Langston in Kansas, as his mother sought employment. Through the black American [[oral tradition]] and drawing from the activist experiences of her generation, she instilled in the young Langston Hughes a lasting sense of racial pride.<ref>Hughes recalled his maternal grandmother’s stories: "Through my grandmother’s stories life always moved, moved heroically toward an end. Nobody ever cried in my grandmother’s stories. They worked, schemed, or fought. But no crying." Rampesad, Arnold & Roessel, David (2002). ''The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes'', p.620</ref><ref>The poem ''Aunt Sues’s Stories'' (1921) is an oblique tribute to his grandmother and his loving Auntie Mary Reed. Rampersad.vol.1, 1986, p.43</ref><ref> Imbued by his grandmother with a duty to help his race, Langston Hughes identified with neglected and downtrodden blacks all his life, and glorified them in his work. Brooks, Gwendolyn, (Oct. 12, 1986). "The Darker Brother". The ''New York Times''</ref> He spent most of childhood in [[Lawrence, Kansas|Lawrence]], [[Kansas]]. After the death of his grandmother, he went to live with family friends, James and Mary Reed, for two years. Due to an unstable early life, his childhood was not an entirely happy one, but it was one that heavily influenced the poet he would become. Later, Hughes lived again with his mother Carrie in [[Lincoln, Illinois|Lincoln]], [[Illinois]], who had remarried when he was still an adolescent, and eventually in [[Cleveland, Ohio|Cleveland]], [[Ohio]], where he attended [[high school]].

While in [[grammar school]] in Lincoln, Illinois, Hughes was elected class poet. Hughes stated in retrospect he thought it was because of the [[stereotype]] that African Americans have rhythm.<ref> Langston Hughes Reads his poetry with commentary, audiotape from [[Caedmon Audio]]</ref> "I was a victim of a stereotype. There were only two of us Negro kids in the whole class and our English teacher was always stressing the importance of rhythm in poetry. Well, everyone knows &mdash; except us &mdash; that all Negroes have rhythm, so they elected me as class poet."<ref> ''Langston Hughes, Writer, 65, Dead''. (May 23, 1967). ''The New York Times''</ref> During high school in Cleveland, Ohio, he wrote for the school newspaper, edited the [[yearbook]], and began to write his first short stories, poetry, and dramatic plays. His first piece of [[jazz poetry]], "'When Sue Wears Red", was written while he was still in high school. It was during this time that he discovered his love of books. From this early period in his life, Hughes would cite as influences on his poetry the American poets [[Paul Laurence Dunbar]] and [[Carl Sandburg]].

===Relationship with father and Columbia===
[[Image:Langston Hughes by Nickolas Muray.jpg|thumb|Langston Hughes, photographed by [[Nickolas Muray]], 1923]]
Hughes spent a brief period of time with his father in Mexico in 1919. The relationship between Langston and his father was troubled, causing Hughes a degree of dissatisfaction that led him to contemplate [[suicide]] at least once. Upon graduating from high school in June 1920, Hughes returned to live with his father, hoping to convince him to provide money to attend [[Columbia University]]. Hughes later said that, prior to arriving in Mexico again:
{{cquote|I had been thinking about my father and his strange dislike of his own people. I didn't understand it, because I was a Negro, and I liked Negroes very much.<ref> Langston Hughes, The Big Sea (1940), pp.54-56</ref><ref>James Hughes, a wealthy lawyer and landowner and himself a black man, hated both the racism of the North and Negroes, whom he portrayed in crude racial caricature. Smith, Dinitia (Nov. 26, 1997). ''Child’s Tale About Race Has a Tale of Its Own''. ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>And the father, Hughes said, "hated Negroes. I think he hated himself, too, for being a Negro. He disliked all of his family because they were Negroes." James Hughes was tightfisted, uncharitable, cold. Brooks, Gwendolyn, (Oct. 12, 1986). ''The Darker Brother''. The ''New York Times''</ref>}} Initially, his father had hoped for Hughes to attend a university abroad, and to study for a career in [[engineering]]. On these grounds, he was willing to provide financial assistance to his son. James Hughes did not support his son's desire to be a writer. Eventually, Langston and his father came to a compromise. Langston would study engineering, so long as he could attend Columbia. His tuition provided, Hughes left his father after more than a year of living with him. While at Columbia in 1921, Hughes managed to maintain a B+ grade average. He left in 1922 because of [[racism|racial prejudice]] within the institution, and his interests revolved more around the neighborhood of [[Harlem]] than his studies, though he continued writing poetry.<ref>Rampersad.vol.1, 1986, p.56</ref>

===Adulthood===
[[Image:Langston Hughes Lincoln University 1928.jpg|thumb|left|Langston Hughes, Lincoln University, photograph [[Yale University]] Collection of American Literature, [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]]]]
Hughes worked various odd jobs, before serving a brief tenure as a [[crewman]] aboard the S.S. Malone in 1923, spending six months traveling to [[West Africa]] and Europe.<ref>''Poem'' or ''To. F.S.'' first appeared in ''The Crisis'' in May 1925, and was reprinted in ''The Weary Blues'' and ''The Dream Keeper''. Hughes never publicly identified F.S., but it is conjectured he was Ferdinand Smith, a merchant seaman whom the poet first met in New York in the early 1920s. Nine years older than Hughes, Smith first influenced the poet to go to sea. Born in Jamaica in 1893, Smith spent most of his life as a ship steward and political activist at sea--and later in New York as a resident of Harlem. Smith was deported back to Jamaica for alleged Communist activities and illegal alien status in 1951. Hughes corresponded with Smith up until 1961, when Smith died. Berry, p.347</ref> In [[Europe]], Hughes left the S.S. Malone for a temporary stay in [[Paris]].

During his time in Paris in the early 1920s, Hughes became part of the black [[expatriate]] community. In November 1924, Hughes returned to the U. S. to live with his mother in [[Washington, D.C.]] Hughes again found work doing various odd jobs before gaining [[white-collar worker|white-collar]] employment in 1925 as a personal assistant to the historian [[Carter G. Woodson]] at the [[Association for the Study of African American Life and History]]. Not satisfied with the demands of the work and its time constraints that limited his writing, Hughes quit to work as a [[busboy]] in a hotel. It was while working as a busboy that Hughes would encounter the poet [[Vachel Lindsay]]. Impressed with the poems Hughes showed him, Lindsay publicized his discovery of a new black poet. By this time, Hughes' earlier work had already been published in magazines and was about to be collected into his first book of poetry.

The following year, Hughes enrolled in [[Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)|Lincoln University]], an [[historically black colleges and universities|historically black university]] in [[Chester County, Pennsylvania]]. There he became a member of the [[Omega Psi Phi]] [[Fraternities and sororities|Fraternity]], the first black fraternal organization founded at a historically black college and university.<ref> In 1926, a patron of Hughes, Amy Spingarn, wife of Joel Elias Spingarn, provided the funds ($300) for him to attend Lincoln University. Rampersad.vol.1, 1986,p.122-23</ref><ref>In November 1927, Charlotte Osgood Mason, (“Godmother” as she liked to be called), became Hughes' major patron. Rampersad. vol.1,1986,p.156</ref> [[Thurgood Marshall]], who later became an [[Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States]], was an [[alumnus]] and classmate of Langston Hughes during his undergraduate studies at Lincoln University.

Hughes earned a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] degree from Lincoln University in 1929. He then moved to New York. Except for travels to areas that included parts of the [[Caribbean]], Hughes lived in Harlem as his primary home for the remainder of his life.

Academics and biographers today believe that Hughes was a [[homosexuality|homosexual]] and included homosexual codes in many of his poems, similar in manner to [[Walt Whitman]], whose work Hughes cited as another influence on his poetry. Hughes' story "Blessed Assurance" deals with a father's anger over his son's effeminacy and queerness.<ref name="Nero">Nero, Charles I. (1997). "Queer Representations: Reading Lives, Reading Cultures." In Martin Duberman (Ed.), ''Re/Membering Langston'', p.192. New York University Press</ref><ref name="YaleSymposium">Yale Symposium, ''Was Langston Gay?'' commemorating the 100th birthday of Hughes in 2002</ref><ref name="Schwarz">Schwarz, pp.68-88</ref><ref>Although Hughes was extremely closeted, some of his poems hint at his homosexuality. These include: ''Joy,'' ''Desire'', ''Cafe: 3 A.M.,'' ''Waterfront Streets'', ''Young Sailor'', ''Trumpet Player'', ''Tell Me'', ''F.S.'' and some poems in ''Montage of a Dream Deferred''. Langston Hughes page [http://members.aol.com/matrixwerx/glbthistory/hughes.htm] Retrieved January 10, 2007</ref><ref>...Cafe 3 A.M. was against gay bashing by police, and Poem for F.S. which was about his friend Ferdinand Smith. Nero, Charles I. (1999), p.500</ref><ref name="Nero">Nero, p.161.</ref><ref>Jean Blackwell Hutson, former chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, said, “He was always eluding marriage. He said marriage and career didn’t work.....It wasn’t until his later years that I became convinced he was homosexual.” Hutson & Nelson. ''Essence magazine'', February 1992. p.96</ref><ref>"Though there were infrequent and half-hearted affairs with women, most people considered Hughes asexual, insistent on a skittish, carefree 'innocence.' In fact, he was a closeted homosexual...." McClatchy, J.D. (2002).''Langston Hughes: Voice of the Poet''. New York: Random House Audio, p.12</ref> To retain the respect and support of black churches and organizations and avoid exacerbating his precarious financial situation, Hughes remained [[closeted]].<ref name="Aldrich">Aldrich, (2001), p.200 </ref> [[Arnold Rampersad]], the primary biographer of Hughes, determined that Hughes exhibited a preference for other African-American men in his work and life.<ref> "Referring to men of African descent, Rampersad writes "...Hughes found some young men, especially dark-skinned men, appealing and sexually fascinating. (Both in his various artistic representations, in fiction especially, and in his life, he appears to have found young white men of little sexual appeal.) Virile young men of very dark complexion fascinated him. Rampersad, vol.2,1988,p.336</ref> This love of black men is evidenced in a number of reported unpublished poems to a black male lover.<ref> Sandra West explicitly states: Hughes' "apparent love for black men as evidenced through a series of unpublished poems he wrote to a black male lover named 'Beauty'." West,2003. p.162 </ref>

===Death===
[[Image:Langston Hughes african comogram.jpg|300px|thumb|left|The [[terrazzo]] and [[brass]] African cosmogram titled ''Rivers'' on the floor in front of the Langston Hughes auditorium in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem (designed by [[artist]] Houston Conwill, poet Estella Conwill Majozo, and [[architect]] Joseph DePace)]]
On May 22, 1967, Hughes died from complications after abdominal surgery, related to [[prostate cancer]], at the age of 65. His ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion in the middle of the foyer leading to the auditorium named for him within the [[Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture]] in Harlem.<ref> Whitaker, Charles.[[Ebony magazine]] In ''Langston Hughes:100th birthday celebration of the poet of Black America''. April 2002.</ref> The design on the floor covering his [[cremation|cremated]] remains is an [[Africa]]n [[cosmogram]] titled ''Rivers''. The title is taken from the poem ''The Negro Speaks of Rivers'' by Hughes. Within the center of the cosmogram and precisely above the ashes of Hughes are the words ''My soul has grown deep like the rivers''.

Many of Hughes' papers reside at his [[alma mater]] in the Langston Hughes Memorial Library on the campus of [[Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)|Lincoln University]], as well as at the [[James Weldon Johnson]] Collection within the [[Yale University]] [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]].
{{-}}

==Career==
[[Image:The Weary Blues 1926.jpg|thumb|left|Langston Hughes, ''The Weary Blues'', Cover design by [[Miguel Covarrubias]], 1926]]
===1920s===
First published in ''[[The Crisis]]'' in 1921, the verse that would become Hughes's signature poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", appeared in his first book of poetry ''The Weary Blues'' in 1926:<ref>''The Negro Speaks of Rivers'': First published in ''Crisis'' (June 1921), p.17. Included in "The New Negro" (1925), ''The Weary Blues'', ''Langston Hughes Reader'', and ''Selected Poems''. In ''The Weary Blues'', the poem is dedicated to W.E.B. Du Bois. The dedication does not appear in later printings of the poem. Hughes' first and last published poems appeared in ''The Crisis''; more of his poems appeared in ''The Crisis'' than in any other journal. Rampesad, Arnold & Roessel, David (2002). In ''The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes''. p.23 & p.620, Knopf</ref>

::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''.

[[Image:Fauset,Hughes, Hurston 1927.jpg|200px|thumb|Jessie Fauset,Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston,1927, [[Tuskegee]]. [[Yale University]] Collection of American Literature, [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]]]]
Hughes' life and work were enormously influential during the [[Harlem Renaissance]] of the 1920s alongside those of his contemporaries, [[Zora Neale Hurston]], [[Wallace Thurman]], [[Claude McKay]], [[Countee Cullen]], [[Richard Bruce Nugent]], and [[Aaron Douglas]], who, collectively, (with the exception of McKay), created the short-lived magazine ''Fire!! Devoted to Younger Negro Artists''.

Hughes and his contemporaries were often in conflict with the goals and aspirations of the black [[middle class]], and of those considered to be the midwives of the Harlem Renaissance, [[W. E. B. Du Bois]], [[Jessie Redmon Fauset]], and [[Alain LeRoy Locke]], whom they accused of being overly fulsome in accommodating and assimilating [[Eurocentrism|Eurocentric]] values and culture for [[social equality]]. A primary expression of this conflict was the former's depiction of the "low-life", that is, the real lives of blacks in the lower social-economic strata and the superficial divisions and prejudices based on skin color within the black community.<ref>Hughes "disdained the rigid class and color differences the 'best people' drew between themselves and Afro-Americans of darker complexion, of smaller means and lesser formal education. Berry, 1983 & 1992, p.60</ref> Hughes wrote what would be considered the [[manifesto]] for him and his contemporaries published in [[The Nation]] in 1926, ''The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain'':
::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.

Hughes was unashamedly black at a time when blackness was démodé, and he didn’t go much beyond the themes of ''black is beautiful'' as he explored the black human condition in a variety of depths.<ref>"....but his tastes and selectivity were not always accurate, and pressures to survive as a black writer in a white society (and it was a miracle that he did for so long) extracted an enormous creative toll. Nevertheless, Hughes, more than any other black poet or writer, recorded faithfully the nuances of black life and its frustrations." Patterson, Lindsay (June 29, 1969). ''Langston Hughes--The Most Abused Poet in America?'' ''The New York Times''</ref> His main concern was the uplift of his people who he judged himself the adequate appreciator of and whose strengths, resiliency, courage, and humor he wanted to record as part of the general American experience.<ref name="Brooks">Brooks, Gwendolyn, (Oct. 12, 1986). ''The Darker Brother''. The ''New York Times''</ref><ref>Rampesad, Arnold & Roessel, David (2002). ''The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes''. p.3</ref> Thus, his [[poetry]] and [[fiction]] centered generally on insightful views of the working class lives of blacks in America, lives he portrayed as full of struggle, joy, laughter, and music. Permeating his work is pride in the [[African American]] identity and its diverse culture. "My seeking has been to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America and obliquely that of all human kind,"<ref>Rampersad,1988,vol.2,p.418</ref> Hughes is quoted as saying. Therefore, in his work he confronted [[Ethnic stereotype|racial stereotypes]], protested social conditions, and expanded African America’s image of itself; a “people’s poet” who sought to reeducate both audience and artist by lifting the theory of the black [[Aesthetics|aesthetic]] into reality.<ref>West. 2003, p.162</ref> An expression of this is the poem ''My People'':<ref>''My People'': First published as ''Poem'' in ''Crisis'' (Oct.1923), p. 162, and ''The Weary Blues'' (1926). The title ''My People'' was used in ''The Dream Keeper'' (1932) and the ''Selected Poems of Langston Hughes'' (1959). Rampersad, Arnold & Roessel, David (2002). In ''The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes''. p.36 & p.623, Knopt.</ref>
[[Image:Famous New Negro .jpg|250px|thumb|left|Langston Hughes, [[Charles S. Johnson]], [[E. Franklin Frazier]], [[Rudolph Fisher]], & [[Hubert Delany]]. African American writers influenced the [[Négritude]] movement in France. Hughes, [[W.E.B. Du Bois]], and [[Claude Mckay]] were the most influential. Photograph [[Yale University]] Collection of American Literature, [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]]]]

::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''.

Moreover, Hughes stressed the importance of a racial consciousness and cultural [[nationalism]] absent of self-hate that united people of African descent and Africa across the globe and encouraged pride in their own diverse black [[folk culture]] and black aesthetic. Langston Hughes was one of the few black writers of any consequence to champion racial consciousness as a source of inspiration for black artists.<ref>Rampersad.vol.2, 1988, p.297</ref> His African-American race consciousness and cultural nationalism would influence many foreign black writers, such as [[Jacques Roumain]], [[Nicolás Guillén]], [[Léopold Sédar Senghor]], and [[Aimé Césaire]]. With Senghor and Césaire and other French-speaking writers of [[Africa]] and of African descent from the Caribbean like [[René Maran]] from [[Martinique]] and [[Léon Damas]] from [[French Guiana]] in [[South America]], the works of Hughes helped to inspire the concept that became the [[Négritude]] movement in France where a radical black self-examination was emphasized in the face of European [[colonialism]].<ref> Rampersad.vol.1, 1986, p. 91</ref><ref>Mercer Cook, African American scholar of French culture: "His (Langston Hughes) work had a lot to do with the famous concept of ''Négritude'', of black soul and feeling, that they were beginning to develop." Rampersad.vol.1, 1986, p. 343</ref> Langston Hughes was not only a role model for his calls for black racial pride instead of [[Cultural assimilation|assimilation]], but the most important technical influence in his emphasis on folk and jazz rhythms as the basis of his poetry of racial pride.<ref>Rampersad.vol.1, 1986, p. 343</ref>
[[Image:Ways of white folks cover.jpg|thumb|''The Ways of White Folks'' by Langston Hughes, 1934. Photograph [[Yale University]] Collection of American Literature, [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]]]]

===1930s===
In 1930, his first [[novel]], ''Not Without Laughter'', won the [[Harmon Gold Medal]] for literature.<ref>Charlotte Mason generously supported him (Hughes) for two years. She supervised the writing of his first novel, ''Not Without Laughter'' (1930). Her patronage of Hughes ended about the time the novel appeared. Rampersad. ''Langston Hughes''. In The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature, 2001, p.207</ref> The [[protagonist]] of the story is a boy named Sandy whose family must deal with a variety of struggles imposed upon them due to their race and class in society in addition to relating to one another. Hughes first collection of short stories came in 1934 with ''The Ways of White Folks''.<ref> Noel Sullivan, after working out an agreement with Hughes, became a patron for him in 1933. Rampersad. vol.1, 1986, p.277</ref><ref>Sullivan provided Hughes with the opportunity to complete the ''The Ways of White Folks'' (1934) in Carmel, California. Hughes stayed a year in a cottage Sullivan provided for him to work in. Rampersad. ''Langston Hughes''. In The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature, 2001, p.207</ref> These stories provided a series of vignettes revealing the humorous and tragic interactions between whites and blacks. Overall, these stories are marked by a general pessimism about race relations, as well as a sardonic realism.<ref>Rampersad. “''Langston Hughes''.” In The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature.2001.p.207</ref> He received a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] in 1935. In 1938, Hughes would establish the ''Harlem Suitcase Theater'' followed by the'' New Negro Theater'' in 1939 in [[Los Angeles, California|Los Angeles]], and the ''Skyloft Players'' in [[Chicago]] in 1941.

===1940s===
The same year Hughes established his theatre troupe in Los Angeles, his ambition to write for the movies materialized when he co-wrote the screenplay for ''Way Down South''.<ref>Co-written with [[Clarence Muse]], African American Hollywood actor and musician. Rampersad.vol.1, 1986, p. 366-69</ref> Further hopes by Hughes to write for the lucrative movie trade were thwarted because of racial discrimination within the industry.<ref>Gwendolyn Brooks, who met Hughes when she was 16 says, "I met Langston Hughes when I was 16 years old, and saw enough of him in subsequent years to observe that, when subjected to offense and icy treatment because of his race, he was capable of jagged anger - and vengeance, instant or retroactive. And I have letters from him that reveal he could respond with real rage when he felt he was treated cruelly by other people. Brooks, Gwendolyn, (Oct. 12, 1986). ''The Darker Brother''. The ''New York Times''</ref> Through the black publication [[Chicago Defender]], Hughes in 1943 gave creative birth to ''Jesse B. Semple'', often referred to and spelled ''Simple'', the everyday black man in Harlem who offered musings on topical issues of the day. He was offered to teach at a number of colleges, but seldom did. In 1947, Hughes taught a semester at the predominantly black [[Clark Atlanta University|Atlanta University]]. Hughes, in 1949, spent three months at the integrated [[University of Chicago Laboratory Schools]] as a "Visiting Lecturer on Poetry." He wrote [[novel]]s, [[short story|short stories]], [[Play (theatre)|plays]], poetry, operas, essays, works for children, and, with the encouragement of his best friend and writer, [[Arna Bontemps]], and [[patronage|patron]] and friend, [[Carl Van Vechten]], two autobiographies, ''The Big Sea'' and ''I Wonder as I Wander'', as well as translating several works of literature into English.

===1950s and 1960s===
<!-- [[Image:Chinua Achebe and Langston Hughes, Lagos, July 1962.jpg|thumb|left|Langston Hughes with African writer [[Chinua Achebe]] in [[Lagos]], [[Nigeria]], 1962. commented out image deleted on commons-->

[[Chinua Achebe]] was one of the many African American and African writers whom Hughes heavily influenced. Much of his writing was inspired by the rhythms and language of the black church, and, the [[blues]] and [[jazz]] of that era, the music he believed to be the true expression of the black spirit; an example is "Harlem" (sometimes called "Dream Deferred") from ''Montage of a Dream Deferred'' (1951), from which a line was taken for the title of the play ''[[A Raisin in the Sun]]''.<ref>''Harlem(2)'': Reprinted in ''Selected Poems of Langston Hughs'' under the title ''Dream Deferred''. Rampesad, Arnold & Roessel, David (2002). In ''The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes''. p.426 & p.676, Knopf</ref>

::What happens to a dream deferred?
::Does it dry up
::like a raisin in the sun?
::Or fester like a sore
::And then run?
::Does it stink like rotten meat?
::Or crust and sugar over
::like a syrupy sweet?
::Maybe it just sags
::like a heavy load.

::''Or does it explode?''

During the mid-1950s and -1960s, Hughes' popularity among the younger generation of black writers varied as his reputation increased worldwide. With the gradual advancement toward [[racial integration]], many black writers considered his writings of black pride and its corresponding subject matter out of date. They considered him a racial
chauvinist.<ref>Rampersad,1988,vol.2,p.207</ref> He in turn found a number of writers like [[James Baldwin (writer)|James Baldwin]] lacking in this same pride, over intellectualizing in their work, and occasionally vulgar.<ref>Langstons’s misgivings about the new black writing mainly concerned its emphasis on black criminality and on profanity. Rampersad, vol.2,p.207</ref><ref>Hughes said, "There are millions of blacks who never murder anyone, or rape or get raped or want to rape, who never lust after white bodies, or cringe before white stupidity, or Uncle Tom, or go crazy with race, or off-balance with frustration." Rampersad, p.119, vol.2</ref><ref> Langston eargerly looked to the day when the gifted young writers of his race would go beyond the clamor of civil rights and integration and take a genuine pride in being black....he found this latter quality starkly absent in even the best of them....Rampersad, vol. 2, p.310</ref>

Hughes wanted young black writers to be objective about their race, but not scorn or to flee it.<ref>Rampersad.vol.2, 1988, p. 297</ref> He understood the main points of the [[Black Power]] movement of the 1960s, but believed that some of the younger black writers who supported it were too angry in their work. Hughes' posthumously published ''Panther and the Lash'' in 1967 was intended to show solidarity and understanding with these writers but with more skill and absent of the most virile anger and terse racial chauvinism some showed toward whites.<ref>"As for whites in general, Hughes did not like them...He felt he had been exploited and humiliated by them." Rampersad, 1988,vol.2,p.338</ref><ref>Hughes' advice on how to deal with racists was "'Always be polite to them...be over-polite. Kill them with kindness.' But, he insisted on recognizing that all whites are not racist, and definitely enjoyed the company of those who sought him out in friendship and with respect." Rampersad, 1988,vol.2,p.368</ref> Hughes still continued to have admirers among the larger younger generation of black writers who he often helped by offering advice to and introducing to other influential persons in the literature and publishing communities. This latter group, who happened to include [[Alice Walker]] who Hughes discovered, looked upon Hughes as a hero and an example to be emulated in degrees and tones within their own work. One of these young black writers observed of Hughes, "Langston set a tone, a standard of brotherhood and friendship and cooperation, for all of us to follow. You never got from him, 'I am ''the'' Negro writer,' but only 'I am ''a'' Negro writer.' He never stopped thinking about the rest of us."<ref name="Rampersad">Rampersad, 1988, vol.2, p.409 </ref>

==Recognition and honors==
*In 1943, Lincoln University awarded Hughes an honorary [[Doctor of Letters|Litt.D.]].

*In 1960, the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]] awarded Hughes the [[Spingarn Medal]] for distinguished achievements by an African American.

*1961 - Hughes was inducted into the [[The American Academy of Arts and Letters|National Institute of Arts and Letters]].<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A32779164</ref>.

*1963 - [[Howard University]] awarded Hughes an honorary [[doctorate]].

*In 1973, the first [[Langston Hughes Medal]] was awarded by the [[City College of New York]].

*In 1981, New York City Landmark status was given to the Harlem home of Langston Hughes at [http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=20+East+127th+Street,+new+york+new+york&sll=40.800556,-73.939705&sspn=0.084465,0.177498&ie=UTF8&ll=40.812754,-73.939748&spn=0.010556,0.019934&t=h&z=16&om=0&layer=c&cbll=40.807458,-73.940706&cbp=2,196.5916401882245,,0,-7.137103326501432 20 East 127th Street] by the [[New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission]] and 127th St. was renamed ''Langston Hughes Place''.<ref> Jean Carlson(2007). [http://gothamist.com/2007/06/18/langston_hughes.php.]Retrieved June 30, 2007. </ref>

*On February 1, 2002, The United States Postal Service added the image of Langston Hughes to its Black Heritage series of postage stamps to commemorate both the centennial of Hughes' birth and the 25th anniversary of the Black Heritage series.

*In [[2002]], scholar [[Molefi Kete Asante]] listed Langston Hughes on his list of [[100 Greatest African Americans]].<ref>Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). 100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia. Amherst, New York. Prometheus Books. ISBN 1-57392-963-8. </ref>

==Political views==
Hughes, like many black writers and artists of his time, was drawn to the promise of [[Communism]] as an alternative to a [[Racial segregation|segregated]] America. Many of his lesser-known political writings have been collected in two volumes published by the University of Missouri Press and reflect his attraction to Communism. An example is the poem "A New Song":<ref>''A New Song'': The end of the poem was substantially changed when it was included in ''A New Song'' (New York: ''International Workers Order'', 1938). The first version, in ''Opportunity'' (Jan. 1933), p. 123, and ''Crisis'' (March 1933), p.59. reads after line 39:
::New words are formed,
::Bitter
::With the past
::And sweet
::with the dream.
::Tense, silent,
::Without a sound.
::They fall unuttered--
::Yet heard everywhere:

::''Take care!''
::Black world
::Against the wall,
::Open your eyes--
::''The long white snake of greed has struck to kill!''

::Be wary and
::Be wise!
::Before
::The darker world
::The future lies.
Rampesad, Arnold & Roessel, David
(2002). In ''The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes''. p.170 & p.643, Knopf</ref>
::I speak in the name of the black millions
::Awakening to action.
::Let all others keep silent a moment
::I have this word to bring,
::This thing to say,
::This song to sing:

::Bitter was the day
::When I bowed my back
::Beneath the slaver's whip.

::''That day is past''.

::Bitter was the day
::When I saw my children unschooled,
::My young men without a voice in the world,
::My women taken as the body-toys
::Of a thieving people.

::''That day is past''.

::Bitter was the day, I say,
::When the lyncher's rope
::Hung about my neck,
::And the fire scorched my feet,
::And the oppressors had no pity,
::And only in the sorrow songs
::Relief was found.

::''That day is past''.

::I know full well now
::Only my own hands,
::Dark as the earth,
::Can make my earth-dark body free.
::O thieves, exploiters, killers,
::No longer shall you say
::With arrogant eyes and scornful lips:
::"You are my servant,
::Black man-
::I, the free!"

::''That day is past''-

::For now,
::In many mouths-
::Dark mouths where red tongues burn
::And white teeth gleam-
::New words are formed,
::Bitter
::With the past
::But sweet
::With the dream.
::Tense,
::Unyielding,
::Strongand sure,
::They sweep the earth-

::''Revolt! Arise!''

::The Black
::And White World
::Shall be one!
::The Worker's World!

::''The past is done!''

::A new dream flames
::Against the
::Sun!
[[Image:Meschrabpam's American Negro Film Group.jpg|300px|thumb|left|Langston Hughes with his friends on board the [[SS Europa (1930)|Europa]], Meschrabpam's American Negro Film Group, June 17, 1932. Seated front center from left to right are [[Louise Thompson Patterson]] and [[Dorothy West]]. On board ship was also [[Ralph Bunche]] who was visiting Paris with Alain Locke. Photograph [[Yale University]] Collection of American Literature, [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]]]]
In 1932, Hughes became part of a group of blacks who went to the [[Soviet Union]] to make a film depicting the plight of African Americans in the United States. The film was never made, but Hughes was given the opportunity to travel extensively through the Soviet Union and to the Soviet-controlled regions in [[Central Asia]], the latter parts usually closed to Westerners. In [[Turkmenistan]], Hughes met and befriended the [[Hungary|Hungarian]] [[polymath]] [[Arthur Koestler]]. Hughes also managed to travel to China and Japan before returning to the States.

Hughes' poetry was frequently published in the [[Communist Party USA|CPUSA]] newspaper and he was involved in initiatives supported by [[Communism|Communist]] organizations, such as the drive to free the [[Scottsboro Boys]]. Partly as a show of support for the [[Second Spanish Republic|Republican]] faction during the [[Spanish Civil War]], in 1937 Hughes traveled to Spain as a correspondent for the ''Baltimore Afro-American'' and other various African-American newspapers. Hughes was also involved in other Communist-led organizations like the [[John Reed (journalist)|John Reed]] Clubs and the [[League of Struggle for Negro Rights]]. He was more of a sympathizer than an active participant. He signed a statement in 1938 supporting [[Joseph Stalin]]'s [[Moscow Trials|purges]] and joined the [[American Peace Mobilization]] in 1940 working to keep the U.S. from participating in [[World War II]]. <ref name="FFFaOWp9">Langston Hughes (2001), ''Fight for Freedom and Other Writings''. p.9, [[University of Missouri Press]]</ref>

Hughes initially did not favor black American involvement in the war because of the persistence of discriminatory U.S. [[Jim Crow laws]] existing while blacks were encouraged to fight against [[Fascism]] and the [[Axis powers]]. He came to support the war effort and black American involvement in it after deciding that blacks would also be contributing to their struggle for [[civil rights]] at home.<ref>Irma Cayton, African American, said "He had told me that it wasn't our war, it wasn't our business, there was too much Jim Crow. But he had changed his mind about all that." Rampersad,1988,vol.2,p.85</ref>
[[Image:Hughes Un-American Subcommittee Investigation 1953.jpg|thumb|Langston Hughes, before the U.S. [[Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]] in 1953]]

Hughes was accused of being a [[Communism|Communist]] by many on the [[right-wing politics|political right]], but he always denied it. When asked why he never joined the Communist Party, he wrote "it was based on strict discipline and the acceptance of directives that I, as a writer, did not wish to accept." In 1953, he was called before the [[United States Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations|Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]] led by [[United States Senate|Senator]] [[Joseph McCarthy]]. Following his appearance, he distanced himself from Communism and was subsequently rebuked by some who had previously supported him on the [[Radical Left]]. Over time, Hughes would distance himself from his most radical poems. In 1959 his collection of ''Selected Poems'' was published. He excluded his most controversial work from this group of poems.

Hughes was a longtime resident of [[Westfield, New Jersey]].<ref>"AUTHOR TO LEAVE JAPAN.; J.L. Hughes Will Depart After Questioning as to Communism.", ''[[The New York Times]]'', July 25, 1933.</ref>

==Theater and film ==
*Hughes' sexuality was the subject of plays by African-American playwrights: ''[[Hannibal]] of the Alps'' by Michael Dinwiddie and ''Paper Armor'' by Eisa Davis.

*In the 1989 film, ''[[Looking for Langston]]'', British filmmaker [[Isaac Julien]] claimed Hughes as a black gay icon &mdash; Julien thought that Hughes' sexuality had historically been ignored or downplayed. <ref name="Highleyman">Highleyman, Liz. (February 27, 2004)[http://www.washblade.com/2004/2-27/locallife/pastout/past.cfm "Past Out: Langston Hughes' legacy"], ''Washington Blade'', 27 Feb 2004, Retrieved October 15, 2006</ref>

*In the film ''[[Get on the Bus]]'', directed by [[Spike Lee]], a black gay character, played by [[Isaiah Washington]], invokes the name of Hughes and punches a [[homophobia|homophobic]] character while commenting, "''This is for James Baldwin and Langston Hughes''."

*In 2003, [[Gary LeRoi Gray]] portrayed Hughes as a teenager in the [[short subject|short film]] ''Salvation'', based on a portion of his [[autobiography]] ''The Big Sea''.<ref>IMDb[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0331332/]Retrieved November 4, 2006</ref>

*In the 2004 film ''[[Brother to Brother]]'', the diminutive {{convert|5|ft|4|in|m|2|adj=on|sp=us}} Hughes was portrayed by {{convert|6|ft|1|in|m|2|adj=on|sp=us}} [[actor]] [[Daniel Sunjata]].

*The New York Center for Visual History included Langston Hughes as part of its documentary ''Voices & Visions'' series of notable writers.

*''Hughes' Dream Harlem'' by [[Film producer|producer]] and [[film director|director]] Jamal Joseph also addresses Hughes' steadfast racial pride and artistic independence.

==Bibliography==
[[Image:Fine clothes to the jew poems (2).jpg|thumb|'''Fine Clothes to the Jew''' by Langston Hughes, 1927. Photograph [[Yale University]] Collection of American Literature, [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]]]]
===Poetry===
*''The Weary Blues''. Knopf, 1926
*''Fine Clothes to the Jew''. Knopf, 1927
*''The Negro Mother and Other Dramatic Recitations'', 1931
* ''Dear Lovely Death'', 1931
* ''The Dream Keeper and Other Poems''. Knopf, 1932
* ''Scottsboro Limited: Four Poems and a Play''. N.Y.: Golden Stair Press, 1932
* ''Shakespeare in Harlem''. Knopf, 1942
* ''Freedom's Plow''. 1943
* ''Fields of Wonder''. Knopf,1947
* ''One-Way Ticket''. 1949
* ''Montage of a Dream Deferred''. Holt, 1951
* ''Selected Poems of Langston Hughes''. 1958
* ''Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz''. Hill & Wang, 1961
* ''The Panther and the Lash: Poems of Our Times'', 1967
* ''The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes''. Knopf, 1994
* ''[[Let America Be America Again]]'' 2005

===Fiction===
[[Image:Simple.jpg|thumb|'''The Best of Simple''' by Langston Hughes, 1961. Photograph [[Yale University]] Collection of American Literature, [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]]]]
* ''[[Not Without Laughter]]''. Knopf, 1930
* ''The Ways of White Folks''. Knopf, 1934
* ''Simple Speaks His Mind''. 1950
* ''Laughing to Keep from Crying'', Holt, 1952
* ''Simple Takes a Wife''. 1953
* ''Sweet Flypaper of Life'', photographs by [[Roy DeCarava]]. 1955
* ''Simple Stakes a Claim''. 1957
* ''Tambourines to Glory'' (book), 1958
* ''The Best of Simple''. 1961
* ''Simple's Uncle Sam''. 1965
* ''Something in Common and Other Stories''. Hill & Wang, 1963
* ''Short Stories of Langston Hughes''. Hill & Wang, 1996

===Non-fiction===
* ''The Big Sea''. New York: Knopf, 1940
* ''Famous American Negroes''. 1954
* ''[[Marian Anderson]]: Famous Concert Singer''. 1954
* ''I Wonder as I Wander''. New York: Rinehart & Co., 1956
* ''A Pictorial History of the Negro in America'', with [[Milton Meltzer]]. 1956
* ''Famous Negro Heroes of America''. 1958
* ''Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP''. 1962

===Major plays===
[[Image:Don't you want to be free.jpg|thumb|'''Don't You Want to Be Free?''' (1938) by Langston Hughes was performed for his Harlem Suitcase Theatre in Harlem. Photograph [[Yale University]] Collection of American Literature, [[Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library]]]]

* ''Mule Bone'', with Zora Neale Hurston. 1931
* ''Mulatto''. 1935 (renamed The Barrier, an [[opera]], in 1950)
* ''Troubled Island'', with [[William Grant Still]]. 1936
* ''Little Ham''. 1936
* ''Emperor of Haiti''. 1936
* ''Don't You Want to be Free?'' 1938
* ''[[Street Scene (opera)|Street Scene]]'', contributed lyrics. 1947
* ''Tambourines to glory''. 1956
* ''Simply Heavenly''. 1957
* ''[[Black Nativity]]''. 1961
* ''Five Plays by Langston Hughes''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963.
* ''[[Jericho-Jim Crow]]''. 1964

===Works for children===
* ''Popo and Fifina, with Arna Bontemps''. 1932
* ''The First Book of the Negroes''. 1952
* ''The First Book of Jazz''. 1954
* ''The First Book of Rhythms''. 1954
* ''The First Book of the West Indies''. 1956
* ''First Book of Africa''. 1964

===Other===
* ''The Langston Hughes Reader''. New York: Braziller, 1958.
* ''Good Morning Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings by Langston Hughes''. Lawrence Hill, 1973.
* ''The Collected Works of Langston Hughes''. Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2001.

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|2}}
I Too Sing America

== References ==
<div class="references-small">
* Aldrich, Robert (2001). Who's Who in Gay & Lesbian History. [[Routledge]]. ISBN 041522974X
* Bernard, Emily (2001). Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, 1925-1964. Knopf. ISBN 0-679-45113-7
* Berry, Faith (1983.1992,). Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond Harlem. In ''On the Cross of the South'', p.150; & ''Zero Hour'', p.185-186. [[Citadel Press]] ISBN 0-517-14769-6
* Hughes, Langstong (2001). Fight for Freedom and Other Writings on Civil Rights (Collected Works of Langston Hughes, Vol 10). In Christorpher C. DeSantis (Ed). ''Introduction'', p. 9. [[University of Missouri Press]] ISBN 0826213715
* Hutson, Jean Blackwell; & Nelson, Jill (February 1992). "Remembering Langston". ''[[Essence magazine]],'' p.96.
* Joyce, Joyce A. (2004). A Historical Guide to Langston Hughes. In Steven C. Tracy (Ed.), ''Hughes and Twentieth-Century Genderracial Issues'', p.136. [[Oxford University Press]] ISBN 0-19-514434-1
* Nero, Charles I. (1997).Queer Reprensentations: Reading Lives, Reading Cultures. In Martin Duberman (Ed.), ''Re/Membering Langston'', p.192. [[New York University Press]] ISBN 0814718833
* Nero, Charles I. (1999).Columbia Reader on Lesbians and Gay Men in Media, Society, and Politics. In Larry P. Gross & James D. Woods (Eds.), ''In Free Speech or Hate Speech: Pornography and its Means of Production'', p.500. [[Columbia University Press]] ISBN 0231104472
* Nichols, Charles H. (1980). Arna Bontempts-Langston Hughes Letters, 1925-1967. Dodd, Mead & Company. ISBN 0-396-07687-4
* [[Hans Ostrom|Ostrom, Hans]] (1993). Langston Hughes: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne. ISBN 0805783431
* [[Hans Ostrom|Ostrom, Hans]] (2002). A Langston Hughes Encyclopedia. Westport: [[Greenwood Press]], 2002. ISBN 0313303924
* [[Arnold Rampersad|Rampersad, Arnold]] (1986). The Life of Langston Hughes Volume 1: I, Too, Sing America. Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-514642-5
* [[Arnold Rampersad|Rampersad, Arnold]] (1988). The Life of Langston Hughes Volume 2: I Dream A World. ''In Ask Your Mama!'', p.336. Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-514643-3
* Schwarz, Christa A.B. (2003). Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance. In ''Langston Hughes: A "true 'people's poet",''pp.68-88. [[Indiana University Press]] ISBN 0-253-21607-9
* West, Sandra L. (2003). Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. In Aberjhani & Sandra West (Ed.), ''Langston Hughes'', p.162. Checkmark Press ISBN 0-8160-4540-2
</div>

== See also ==
* [[Harlem Renaissance]]
* [[African American literature]]
* [[Pan-Africanism]]
* [[Négritude]]

== External links ==
{{wikiquote|Langston Hughes}}
{{portalpar|African American|AmericaAfrica.png}}
* [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=3340 Poems by Langston Hughes at PoetryFoundation.org]
* [http://www.umsystem.edu/upress/hughes.htm The Collected Works of Langston Hughes]
* [http://www.poets.org/lhugh Langston Hughes on Poets.org] With poems, related essays, and links, from the Academy of American Poets
* [http://www.founders.howard.edu/Reference/Webliographies/Langston_Hughes2_files/Langston_Hughes2.htm A Centennial Tribute to L. Hughes at Howard University]
* [http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poet/172.html Representative Poetry Online, University of Toronto]
* [http://www.historyisaweapon.org/defcon1/langston.html A selection of Langston Hughes's more political poetry]
* [http://schools.usd497.org/langstonhughes/ Langston Hughes Elementary School], Lawrence, KS, including photos and texts of the writer
*[http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/resource_library/publications_siyc_spring2006.html Smithsonian "The Music in Poetry: Langston Hughes & His use of the Blues"]
*[http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/journey/hughes.html Langston Hughes & His Poetry, Library of Congress]
*[http://www.fordfound.org/publications/ff_report/view_ff_report_detail.cfm?report_index=330 The Worlds of Langston Hughes, Ford Foundation Report]
*[http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/360.html The Negro Artist and The Racial Mountain by Langston Hughes]
*[http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/langstonhughes/web.html Beinecke Library,Yale University, Langston Hughes at 100]
*[http://www.kansashistory.us/langstonhughes.html Langston Hughes in Lawrence, KS: Photographs & Biographical Resources]
*[http://www.oc.edu/faculty/scott.lamascus/rob%20seat/LHughes.htm An Analization of Langston Hughes]
*[http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/poetry/hughes_langston.html Phat African American Poetry Book]
*[http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/exhibits/rec_acq/history/sweet.html Sweet Flypaper of Life with Roy DeCarava]
*[http://www.learner.org/catalog/extras/vvspot/video/hughes.html Langston Hughes -- "Dream Deferred,"Clip from the Langston Hughes program the Voices & Visions video]
*[http://webtext.library.yale.edu/xml2html/beinecke.hughesot.con.html#f13845 Langston Hughes Papers on deposit at Yale]
*[http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/hughes America's Library, Library of Congress, Langston Hughes]
*[http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ihas/poet/hughes.html I Hear America Singing, PBS.ORG]
*[http://www.literacyrules.com/Obituarylangstonhughes.htm Obituary of Langston Hughes, The New York Times]
*[http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/space/atrium.htm Atrium where the ashes of Langston Hughes reside in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem]
*[http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&q=Langston%20Hughes&btnG=Google+Search&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wp List of previewable works on Google Book Search] by and concerning Langston Hughes
* [http://negroartist.com/writings/My%20Adventures%20as%20a%20Social%20Poet.pdf "My Adventures as a Social Poet" by Langston Hughes on NegroArtist.com]
* [http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/langstonhughes.htm Langston Hughes FBI File]

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{{Persondata
|NAME=Hughes, Langston
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=Poet, playwright, novelist
|DATE OF BIRTH=February 1, 1902
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Joplin, Missouri]]
|DATE OF DEATH=May 22, 1967
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[New York City|New York]], [[New York]]
}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Langston}}
[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1967 deaths]]
[[Category:African American poets]]
[[Category:African American dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:African American novelists]]
[[Category:African American writers]]
[[Category:American novelists]]
[[Category:Americans of Native American descent]]
[[Category:American poets]]
[[Category:Jazz poetry]]
[[Category:Gay writers]]
[[Category:LGBT African Americans]]
[[Category:LGBT writers from the United States]]
[[Category:Columbia University alumni]]
[[Category:Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) alumni]]
[[Category:Literary collaborators]]
[[Category:Native American writers]]
[[Category:Missouri writers]]
[[Category:People from Joplin, Missouri]]
[[Category:People from Union County, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Deaths from prostate cancer]]
[[Category:Cancer deaths in New York]]

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Revision as of 21:47, 12 January 2009

tl;dr

Black poet who wrote some stuff

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