Langston Hughes
Born February 1, 1902
Joplin, Missouri
Died May 22, 1967
New York, New York
American poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, autobiographer, and nonfiction writer
"[Let the] smug Negro middle class ... turn from their white, respectable, ordinary books to catch a glimmer of their own beauty."
Probably the most famous and celebrated of all African American poets, Langston Hughes had a career that spanned five decades. He produced a wide variety of literary works from novels, plays, and short stories to children's books, translations, and anthologies. But it is for his poetry—with its gripping, vivid images and plainspoken, jazz- and blues-influenced language—that he is most remembered. And the Harlem Renaissance, the period in which he began his career, simply would not have been the same without him.
A Rootless Childhood
Born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, Hughes was of mixed Native American, French, and African heritage, but his family was identified as black. His father, James Nathaniel Hughes, was born in Oklahoma but moved to Joplin in 1899; he had not been allowed to take the bar examination (the test that qualifies those who have studied law to become practicing attorneys) in his own state due to his race.
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