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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 was A'Lelia Walker?

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

3. Who came to Annette's rescue at fight at the Grand Duc?

4. Why did Hughes decide to move from his apartment to an attic room up the hill?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What benefit cabaret was hosted by the NAACP to which Hughes was invited? Who did he meet there? Who was singing at the club when he entered?

2. Why did Hughes go to Washington D.C. after landing in New York?

3. What happened to Hughes when his patron broke off their relationship?

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

5. 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.

6. What did Florence do after the brawl at the Grand Duc? How did this affect the club and what did the owner finally do?

7. Where did Hughes attend college during the 1920s? When was the college founded and by whom? Where is the college located?

8. Who did Hughes call the "great Harlem party giver?" How did Hughes describe the parties and the hostess?

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

10. Who was Annette, and why was she fired from the Grand Duc? What happened on her last night at the club?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Hughes approached the subject of his relationship with his father over the years of his growing up in poverty. Discuss Langston Hughes's relationship with his father James. In what ways are they similar? How do their differences showcase who Langston Hughes is?

Essay Topic 2

In the spring of 1927, the Mississippi River overflowed and caused flooding in cities all along its banks in the South. Discuss Hughes's trip South and his reactions to this part of the country particularly to the treatment of blacks in the South as epitomized by the events in Baton Rouge.

Essay Topic 3

Hughes was asked to participate in a interracial conference at Franklin and Marshall College. He related two important stories, one about how he and Alain Locke were treated at Hill School in Pennsylvania and another about the practical and meaningful topic he suggested be discussed at the conference. Discuss these two stories and what they meant to Hughes and how they affected his life at college and after.

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