Langston Hughes And His Role In The Harlem Renaissance Movement

The Harlem Renaissance Era, was a very big era for the United States and the Civil Rights Movement. From the likes of Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong and many other names that were a part of the movement, one specific poet stood out from all of them, and blessed all the people during the 1920’s and 1930’s. He has written many books that contain poems like I, too, The Negro Speaks River, and Come to Waldorf Astoria.

Langston Hughes was an African American poet during the Harlem Renaissance era. He was born in Joplin, Missouri in 1902. His parents separated as soon as Langston was born, and soon his mother would leave him to find a good job/ work area. That left Langston with his grandmother but he wouldn’t live with her forever, soon she would die in 1912. 2 years after his grandmother's death, he soon reunited with his mother. In 1914 he moved to Lincoln, Illinois with his mother and stepfather. He went to public schools in Illinois and was elected class poet when he was in 8th grade. Once again, Langston and his family would move down to Cleveland, Ohio. There he finished High School in 1920, but once he graduated, he traveled to Mexico to be with his father. The reason why his father did leave him when he was born, was because his father wanted to escape all the racism located in the United States at the time, and to escape from his African American culture.

He would then leave and move to New York and attend Columbia University with his father agreeing to pay his Tuition. He went to there to try and get an education in Engineering. Although, he didn’t stay there long as he would soon leave Columbia University and go to Washington D. C. He would also work in various places, but one specific job got him some attention. He was working a Busy Boy in a restaurant in Washington D. C, there he met Vachel Lindsay and she seemed to really like his poetry, so she got him certain connections that drew more crowds to his poetry speakings. Hughes would soon write a poetry book called “The Weary Blues”. This won him 1st prize in Opportunity Magazines literary competition. With all the attention Langston was getting, he was offered a Scholarship to attend Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. That wasn’t it for him though, he would soon get the help of Carl Van Vechten and release his first poetry book called “The Weary Blues” in 1926. He was also one of the first people to use jazz rhythms in his poetry which got him some more popularity. Langston would soon graduate from Lincoln University in 1929 and would release a novel called “Not Without Laughter” which got him enough money to make a living out of his poetry and novels. He would also go on tours in the U. S. and Japan to teach lectures that talked about poetry. Soon, on July 1936 he published a poem called “Let America be America Again”. Which talked about the hopes and dreams of the lower class of America. He even served as a war correspondent in 1937 for American newspaper during the Spanish Civil war. Hughes did contribute to the Broadway musical called Street Scene, and was even teaching creative writing an Atlanta University. He would continue that job, but then he released a very well-known and celebrated poem in 1951 called, “What happens to a dream deferred” which talked about Dreams falling short for African Americans.

Sadly, that was some of the last poetry Langston Hughes would ever write, as he would soon die in May 22nd, 1967 due to complications on prostate cancer. A memorial was held for him where it featured some of his best poetry he has performed. He will forever be an important member of the Harlem Renaissance Era and will live on to be one of the best poets there ever was.