“Must always be free to choose what he does, certainly, but must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.” This quote was stated by James Mercer Langston Hughes, a well known poet, revealing his experiences and memories of the 19th and 20th centuries.* Hughes, an African-American, used poetry to express his passion and emotions to the world.* While Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin Missouri, he spent his childhood in Lawrence and Topeka, Kansas with his mother, but mostly with his grandmother. She was the one who taught him to fight for his freedom and what he believed in.* Although, Hughes was not accepted by many of his fellow peers during grade school, because of his skin color; Hughes grandmother taught him to judge a person by their action, not the color of their skin.* In Kansas, Hughes grew up venting his rejected childhood in writing poetry and reading. In 1915, 19-year-old Hughes left Kansas for Chicago where Crisis magazine published “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” one of his very first poems.* New York City was Hughes next home where he expanded his reputation, and became part of the New York’s Harlem Renaissance.* Some of his best poems and essays were published between the 1920’s and 1930’s.* Langston Hughes spent a majority of his life traveling the world and writing.* Even though he was away, Hughes never forgot about where he grew up, and wrote a popular novel in 1930, about a boy who grew up in a small town of Kansas.* Hughes died May 22, 1967 in New York City, leaving behind his exceptional, touching, pieces of writing for the rest of the world to read.* Langston Hughes gave his readers the opportunity to feel the life of an African-American during the years of discrimination. It is interesting to think of Hughes growing up in Kansas though, because he wrote so powerfully of the hardships African-Americans faced. Kansas is in the middle of the United States, and has no big urban centers. It did not have the harsh racism and laws of the South or the clash of different cultures in Northern cities. Yet Hughes was still affected by racism enough to write his emotional poetry. While he may not have constantly faced the threat of lynching or poverty, he still was emotionally scarred by discrimination. I believe this shows how greatly racism affected America as a whole, and was not just a regional Southern characteristic. Racism was a cultural problem in America, which seeped its way into towns across America, even Lawrence. Hughes life is an example of this, because he spent his formative childhood in Kansas.
*http://www.kshs.org/portraits/hughes_langston.htm
Image: http://uagreeks.uark.edu/images/Langston_Hughes.jpg
By: Brittany Ross
Not only was Langston Hughes a survivor of discrimination, he’s also a perfect case of revisionist history. Like you noted, Hughes began to write while he was living in Lawrence. Most people would only remember his writing after the point of him arriving in Chicago (which is somewhat fair, of course, as he achieved notoriety when he made it to Illinois). However, the impact his upbringing in Lawrence had on his style, his voice, and (therefore) his career is most certainly overlooked by most of his fans.
Another interesting point raised by your post: though he didn’t live in the American South, Hughes was still a target for discrimination. While studying about reconstruction and post-Civil War race relations in the United States, some people lose sight of the fact that though the North was a much more welcoming of African Americans, that didn’t mean everyone was a believer in quality. Even in the North, blacks were considered second-class citizens.
-Elliot Kort
If you want some fun reading for the Christmas break, check out his semi-autobiographical work _Not Without Laughter_. If you’ve read other works written during the Harlem Renaissance (like _Their Eyes Were Watching God_) then you’d like _Not Without Laughter_.