Langston Hughes 2 Essay, Research Paper

Throughout the history of literature, authors have told their readers of the time periods they have lived in and also they have reflected parts of their own character. One major style that has been effectively used in this manner is poetry. The style of poetry was a greatly made use of during the Harlem Renaissance, which was when the African-American “arts” was at its peak. One of the most popular poets of the Harlem Renaissance is Langston Hughes. Despite the racism that prevailed in the 1920s, Langston Hughes used his poetry, as well as prose, to encourage himself and his fellow African-Americans to be proud of their race regardless of their trials and tribulations.

James Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri to James Nathaniel Hughes and Carrie Hughes, two intelligent, college-educated blacks. Soon after Langston’s birth his parents separated; James left for Mexico where he became an engineer while Carrie was forced to take watering and cleaning jobs (Rampersad 5). For most of Langston’s childhood, he lived with his grandmother, Mary Langston, a headstrong woman who escaped slavery and became an underground railroad conductor. Langston received his love for “the arts” from his mother and grandmother. They both would read to him and Carrie brought to see plays (17).

Although Langston’s mother, Carrie, brought him to see plays a read to him, she was never really around for him because she traveled around looking for better work to support herself and aid her mother (Hughes 16) Langston perceived her absence as being negated. He fell into a deep depression. With this depression, he drowned himself in reading and his writing (Rampersad16). Also, he became fascinated with death; so-much-so that he found great comfort in the local morgue. He would even spend nights there when he would run away from home.

At the age of 12, Langston was a star to the younger black students in his school; for two reasons. One, he was an excellent student. Two, he openly rebelled against racism and segregation in the school. Once, his teacher segregated the class, Langston was so upset that he placed signs on the chairs where black students sat that read “Jim Crow Row”. Although prejudice was all around him, he had a well balanced view of race; he realized that there are good and bad people in every race (Rampersad 17).

Langston Hughes’ teenage years were a source of enlightenment for him as far as a career and his relationships with people. In 1915, his grandmother died, but he did not cry. He states, “No one in my grandmother’s stories ever cried and it made seem useless crying about anything (Hughes 18).” That same year, his mother got remarried and he now had a stepbrother who was only a baby. He moved to Lincoln Illinois with them. There he was in eighth grade where he was elected class poet.

“It happened like this. They had elected all the class officers, but there was no one in our class who looked like a poet, or had ever written a poem. There were two Negro children in the class, myself and a girl. In America most white people think, of course, that all Negroes can sing and dance, and have a sense of rhythm. So my classmates, knowing that a poem had to have rhythm, elected me unanimously-thinking, no-doubt that I had some, being a Negro (Hughes 24)

Right after he graduated from the eighth grade, he, mother, brother, and stepfather to Cleveland where he started high school. He was an excellent student and was an active member on the track team, military training corp., year book editor, and numerous other things like writing poetry for his school’s monthly magazine. This is the first poem published:

Just because I loves you-

That’s de reason why

My soul is full of color

Like de wings of a butterfly

Just because I loves you

That’s de reason why

My heart’s a fluttering aspen leaf

When you pass by (Hughes 28)

In 1917 and two years after that, he lived by himself while his mother chased after her husband. At the end of the two years, his mother and brother moved in with him. That spring, he received a message from his father to visit him in Mexico.1 Turns out that Langston has a horrible time with his “self-racist” father. He loathes his father and the way he hates poor, working blacks (Rampersad 30) A year later, Langston journeys back to Mexico to attempt funds from his father to go to Columbia University in New York. His father is enraged at the fact that his son wants to go to school to be a writer and not an engineer, such as he, but after reading published works in the magazine, The Crisis, he is convinced that Langston should go (38).

No sooner does his mother move in with him and drain most of his savings. His father is reluctant to send more money and after the first year, he stops all together (Hughes 41). In search for a job, he becomes a mess boy for the United States Shipping Board. He sales to places such as Africa and Holland (Ostrom 109). He wrote more than ever on his voyages across the sea and ironically began to doubt the quality of his work (Rampersad 52).

After he returns in 1924, he publishes The Weary Blues, a collection of poetry. This book reflected the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance (Miller 23) In 1926, Langston has a chance to fulfill the dream he started out with, to graduate college, so he enrolls at Lincoln University and graduates in the summer of 1929. Around the same time he is receiving poetry prizes from magazines such as The Crisis and Opportunity (Ostrom 109).

As the Harlem renaissance’s hype begins to fade, James Langston Hughes continues to write. In 1940, he has his first autobiography published. In his autobiography, it is obvious that his life is typical for African Americans in his day and age. “For example, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois in 1916, it was an example of the great migration of that decade when blacks were pulling up roots in the South and Journeying North in hope of better jobs and better pay… preserve the future, a vision of American industry during the period (Miller 12-13). Also in his autobiography, we can see how after the war “he realizes the paradox of the American Dream, which rewards whites but punishes Blacks. The idea enriches his prose and verse (13).

Langston chose to live a loose life. He had to face the consequences, such as when he was admitted into a California hospital for a serious gonorrhea outbreak and released on his 39th birthday. He was a heavy smoker and big on social drinking. (Rampersad-II 3) He began to write a column for the Chicago Defender where his fame increased with the ever so hilarious, satirical character Jesse B. Simple in 1943 (Ostrom 111) Despite his career in “encouraging the Negro race (Parker 67)”, he was still reduced to taking “Negro jobs”, such as being a college educated busboy at the age of 41 (Rampersad-II 166).

In 1947, Hughes takes a job teaching Atlanta University students English, and American literature. He was always sure to tell these black students about black authors, a privilege that many are even denied today (Rampersad 175). He continued to write, although not much was published. It seemed that he was more so living the life rather then writing it. Only one book of poetry was released, Field of Wonder (Hughes Selected Poems ii).

As Hughes entered his latter years, he continued to write and tour the country as well as the world. In 1955, Langston began many community event. He did a seminars at Central High School in Cleveland. He even helped open a tiny garden on his old street for the kids in the neighbor hood called “Our Block’s Children’s Garden”. All this he did because he had such a passionate love for black people. Mainly to pass on the love to the next generation of African Americans (Rampersad-II 187).

The following year, he released his second autobiography, I Wonder As I Wander. He was at the peak of fame. So much so that he released his autobiography along with Ertha Kitt, Henry Armstrong, and Pauli Murray as they released their autobiographies (Rampersad-II 387). While still traveling, Langston Hughes released several more publications between 1957-67, including the following:

Simple Takes a Claim (1957)

Selected Poems (1959)

The Best of Simple (1961)

Something in Common and Other Stories (1963)

Panther and the Lash (1967)

On May 6, 1967, Hughes called a New York clinic after he had insufferable stomach pains for a few days. After being advised to go to the emergency room, he was referred to Dr. A. Jacob Begner, a urologist. The doctor thought it strange that he had not been treated for his venereal disease. Rumor had it that he was treated within those two months, only under the name James Hughes; therefore, was given no special treatment until he was recognized by a black orderly. Regardless, he was there at that time and on May 8, he received a needle biopsy, with no signs of cancer. On May 10, he went through further testing and was diagnosed with a cardiovascular disease. His heart valves were enlarging. Two days later he underwent surgery and due to complications, on May 22, 1967 James Langston Hughes, “Master of the Verse” was pronounced dead (Rampersad-II 423).

Against prior wishes, his body was put on display for mourners to see. Randy Weston, a jazz pianist, played a concert of the blues because Langston loved them so much. People there didn’t know whether to cry or tap their feet. Later on that day, a small group of mourners placed his body in Ferncliff Crematory in Hartsdale, NY as his one of his poems was recited (Rampersad-II 425):

“I’ve known Rivers:

I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.

I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.

I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.

I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.

I’ve known river:

Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers (Hughes Selected Poems 4)

In conclusion, James Langston Hughes was a great human. He, like many, have had hard times and have made mistakes. Yet he, unlike most, have turned his sadness, distress and tribulations into motivation for those who share his feelings and those who can appreciate his words. Like Harriet Tubman helped her people by guiding them into the North and Martin Luther King aided his people by inducing peaceful protesting, Langston Hughes abetted his people by writing to every single one in his prose, plays, and his infamous verses. That is why the late Langston Hughes is called the “Master of the Verse”, because not only did he master poetry writing, but he also mastered touching the “Negro” race that he loved so dearly.

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