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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. Who sang at A'Lelia Walker's funeral?

2. When Hughes entered Lincoln, what was the racial make-up of the Board of Trustees?

3. Who did Countee Cullen marry?

4. At Hughes's college, what was the racial makeup of the faculty?

5. What new hotel opened in New York, did not allow Negroes to work or to stay as guests, that inspired Hughes to write a poem about it?

Short Essay Questions

1. While he was still in college, how did Hughes meet the woman who was to become his patron? What story did Hughes tell about their first meeting?

2. Where was the Interracial Conference Hughes attended during his sophomore year located? What story did Hughes tell about this conference?

3. Who was Bruce? Why did he become upset at work? What happened when the boss fired him? How did this affect Hughes?

4. How did Hughes describe the wedding of Countee Cullen? Why was the wedding the talk of Harlem for a time? How was Hughes involved?

5. What was hazing at Lincoln University? What kinds of things did hazing involve? What was Hughes's initiation ritual for his fraternity?

6. How did Hughes's patron feel about black in America? How did this manifest itself in her relationship with Hughes?

7. What poem did Hughes submit in Witter Bynner's Intercollegiate Undergraduate Poetry Contest? How did the poem fare?

8. What was "Shuffle Along" and why was it important in the history of the Black Renaissance in Harlem of the 1920s? Who were some of the important blacks associated with music in the 1920s in Harlem.

9. Who was Gladys Bentley? How did Hughes describe her?

10. What were some of the places in Italy Hughes saw aboard the ship headed for New York? What happened to him in Valencia?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Hughes opened his autobiography with the line "Life is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pull" and closed it with "Literature is a big sea full of many fish. I let down my nets and pulled. I'm still pulling." Discuss these two statements and how they pertain to Hughes, his autobiography, and his life.

Essay Topic 2

Hughes wrote the book "Not Without Laughter" during the summer after his junior year at Lincoln University. What was the book about, and what did it mean to Hughes? What does the phrase "not without laughter" mean and why was it fitting for this novel?

Essay Topic 3

During his time at college, Hughes was introduced to a woman, whose name he did not reveal, who would become his patron and allow him to write without fears of poverty. Discuss this woman and her relationship with Hughes. Describe her and her interest in Hughes and his writing. How did the two of them communicate with each other? How did the relationship finally end?

(see the answer keys)

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