A Man who Conquered His Troubles

 

Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri.  When he was very young, his father moved to Mexico and practiced law.  He did this because his family did not make a high income, and in Mexico there would be better chances for a black man to make a living representing a Latino, than a Caucasian in the United States.  The move of Hughes' father led Hughes to live with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas, while his mother was an aspiring actress in nearby Kansas City, Missouri.  His family was poor and suffered a lot of discrimination.  Hughes grew up in Lawrence, Kansas for most of his childhood.  When his grandmother died he moved to Lincoln, Illinois.  Though he was there only a year, he made a big step toward his future career by writing his first poem. 

 He then moved from Lincoln, Illinois to Cleveland, Ohio. In Ohio, he attended Central High School.  At the school, Hughes did two main things; he ran for the track team and was the school poet.  Often, he would submit poems to be in the school newspaper.  After he graduated, he went to live with his father in Mexico for a year.  Once Hughes returned to the States, he attended Columbia University for one year.

 This was a time where he experienced the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, Hughes was one of many artists  of the Harlem Renaissance.  This was a period where many young talented black artists and writers became noticed in New York City.   Each writer's main subjects were  black life and culture.  Hughes' style propelled him to be one of the most well known of the writers during this time.Hughes' dream was for every black to be truly free.  He said that he wanted to live the "American Dream."  He was a big racial activist, lecturing around the country and trying to live his dream. 

In his work, he puts forth images of African-Americans, jazz music, and many more topics that have been a part of his life.  These elements are what influenced him, and shows it in the works that he has written.  He uses jazz and blues styles for subjects and for structure in his pieces of literature.  In Hughes' poetry, he would try to bring out the sound, cadence, and rhythms from blues and jazz music.  He would also use humor, loneliness, and despair, to imitate the sound of blues and jazz music with words.

Between his year at Columbia University and return to the states in 1925, Hughes traveled the world working different jobs across the globe. When he returned in 1925, he went to live with his mother in Washington DC.  In 1926, he published his first book.  It was a book of poems titled The Weary Blues.  He then attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.  In 1929, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts(B.A.). Hughes’ first published novel was called Not Without Laughter.  In 1930, it won the Golden Harmon award for best novel.  It was after he won this award that he realized he wanted to make literature  his career. He won many awards including the 1953 Anisfeld-Wolfe Award and Witter Bynner Prize .  He was a racial activist trying to live the American Dream of becoming equal and bringing freedom to his ethnicity.   He along with many others ended racial segregation.  He died in New York City on May 22, 1967.