Jordan Rainford per. 2Mrs. Breaux

Race and the lead writer of the Harlem Renaissance

 

            During the Harlem Renaissance, the country was still getting over the effects of slavery and blacks were looking for ways to express their frustrations through art, music and dance. James Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902 in a small city in the Midwest named
Joplin, Missouri. Though he was born in the Midwest and did not spend his childhood years in
New York; Hughes was the most celebrated author during the Harlem Renaissance. The racial inequalities that blacks in the time period faced are what fueled the great mind of Langston Hughes and his writing.

            Langston Hughes began to see how race affected his life as he started seeing how people treated him differently depending where he was. While growing up Hughes moved around a lot, but he spent his older years in
Cleveland, Ohio. In Cleveland Hughes had very few white friends, in fact of the whites that he dealt with most treated him unjustly and with blatant racism (Turman 2). His views were somewhat altered when he moved to
Mexico with his dad (“Langston Hughes” 2). Here he saw a drastic change in the he was treated. Hughes found out that the white people who would not even talk to him in
Cleveland would now (Harper 2). This is because his brown skin could pass Hughes off as a Mexican. In
Mexico, Hughes could even sit in the same train car as whites (Harper 2). After his experiences in Mexico, Hughes went to
New York City with a new mind set, one that implied that in society it was simply blacks alone who struggled in the fight for equality against whites (Harper 2).

            After growing up, Hughes continued to endure many hardships dealing with racial issues. Over the years many whites and even some blacks criticized Hughes’ work as be to harsh, and that he was expressing too much of his “blackness” (Smith 3). Though this never really affected Hughes very much over the years, in the 50s Hughes was falsely accused as being a communist, which at the time was the worst thing some one famous could be called (Rampersad 3). Hughes was forced to be question in front of Congress (Rampersad 3). He was publicly embarrassed and the accusations had forced him to put his career on hold for a while (Rampersad 3). After years and years trying to get back on track he finally did once the 60s came around. But things were different now, and Hughes had a tough time reaching out to the young black militants of the 60s as the African American movement became more about “black power” (Harper 3).

            Another facet of race that helped influence Hughes’ writing was that he got to work with the other black leaders of the Harlem Renaissance era. For starters Hughes’ grandfather, James Langston, was the first black man to be elected into a public office (“Langston Hughes” 4). When he moved to New York City he went to school at

Lincoln
University which at the time was the most prominent black college and he was being taught by many famous black professors (Donald 4). He started out writing several essays about racial issues that were published in famous black magazines like the “
Opportunity”. Hughes wrote “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, which was published by W.E.B. DuBois who was the founder of the NAACP (“Langston Hughes” 5). The music of the era also influenced Hughes. Hughes worked with famous black musicians and his poems had a musical flow and jazz rhythms to them (Dyer 4).  Almost all of the poems Hughes would write would be about blacks and would have the word “black or “negro” in the title. He was also he financially by Charlotte Mason, in fact she was the one who got him through school as well as gave him advice to start writing novels as well as poems (Harper 4). Hughes also grew strong friendships with Alain Locke and Zora Hurston through their ties with Charlotte Mason (Harper 4).

            Langston Hughes was celebrated poet during the Harlem Renaissance as well as after. Many different things gave him inspiration but it seemed as if the race issues in the early 20^th century affected him the most. Hughes is looked upon as being a writer who no matter what spoke his mind and was never ashamed or frightened by ridicule. Hughes decided that he would express his frustration with the way blacks were treated in
America through his writing. The passion that Hughes had to gain equality in society helped him to become one of the greatest authors in American history.   

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