A Universal Renaissance Man

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A Universal Renaissance Man
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, to school teacher Carrie (Caroline) Mercer Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes. Hughes’ father left his family, and later divorced Carrie moving to Cuba, and then Mexico trying to escape the racism in the United States. Since his mom traveled looking for work, young Langston was being raised by his maternal grandmother, Mary Patterson Langston in Lawrence, Kansas. She told him stories of abolitionist and courageous slaves who struggled for their freedom, it was these stories that gave him a great sense of racial pride. After the death of his grandmother in 1912 Langston lived with family friends for awhile, but, eventually he ended up moving back with Carrie who had remarried and was living in Lincoln, Illinois. It was during his school years that He discovered poetry and was elected class poet of his eighth grade class.
After the death of his grandmother young Langston found solace in literature, and once he reunited with his mom and new stepdad he soon found himself being elect poet of his eighth grade class. He received this honor with uncertainty. He is noted as saying, “ I was a victim of a stereotype. There were only two of us Negro kids in the whole class and our English teacher was always stressing the importance of rhythm in poetry. Well, everyone knows, except us, that all Negroes have rhythm, so they elected me as class poet.” This seemed to be what started his career in literature. Shortly after graduating the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio and Langston entered high school. Langston continued writing during high school, he wrote for the school paper, edited the school yearbook, and began writing short stories, poe...

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...nce, Langston was a student at Lincoln University spending weekends and holidays in New York. Lincoln a college and theological seminary was primarily for men of color but would allow white students if they wanted to attend. Since there was no college in the North for Negro youth, John Miller Dickey a Presbyterian minister felt there should be one so he established Lincoln in 1854. As noted in the text, A race enlightened in the knowledge of God will eventually be free.” Although Langston liked Lincoln a lot he found certain things wrong with it. The all white faculty was one of them.

Works Cited

Patterson, Lindsay. "Lanston Hughes--The Most Abused Poet in America?"Nytimes,com. The New York Times Company, 29 June 1969. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

Shmoop Editorial Team. "Langston Hughes: Childhood."Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 15 Apr. 2014.

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