Analysis Of The Negro Artist And The Racial Mountain, By Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri in 1902. He then grew up in Lawrence, Kansas and Lincoln, Illinois, and later went to high school in Cleveland, Ohio. All the places that Hughes moved to comprised of a small community of blacks who he was always attached to from a young age. He did come from a distinguished family, however, his parents divorced when he was young and he lived with his mother in near poverty. In 1921 his father helped him go to Columbia University in New York. Soon after moving there, he experienced Harlem and published “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”. Hughes only attended Columbia one year. He did very well but he was not comfortable there. Hughes ended up taking many different types of jobs in America, Africa,

Hughes blames the blacks’ “desire to pour racial individuality into the old of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible” for their lack of originality (Gates and McKay 1311). He says that blacks instill in each other the idea that whites are more superior to them and therefore should act more like whites so that they can be seen the same way. Hughes was also not afraid to point out examples of blacks showing a preference for white literature and entertainment, which he pointed out as blacks being too critical of themselves. He says that blacks will never get over the “racial mountain” if they continue to be ashamed of themselves and the work of other blacks. Hughes says that blacks will never gain the respect they deserve if they continue to be judgmental of themselves and try to be more like whites. Hughes just wants blacks to be proud of their heritage and where they came from. He believes that blacks loose themselves when trying to be more like

There were many critics that said it was a “tasteless evocation of elements of lower-class black culture.” (McKay 1290) This essay is full of “laughter”, which Hughes and others said the black community needed. (Chasar) Two of Hughes first collections explained to whites why African Americans needed to laugh. (Chasar) Hughes explained that African Americans have a lot of pain so they need a way to laugh and forget about some of their troubles. The laughter is also connected to black power, which can be seen in poems such as “I, Too” and “Strong Men.” (Chasar) Other poets such as Claude McKay and Sterling Brown followed Hughes lead and wrote poems with “laughter” in them. Hughes responded to his critics of “Fine Clothes to the Jew” with his determination to write about such people and explained in “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” a year earlier that “We younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame.” (McKay 1290) He continued by saying “We know we are beautiful. And ugly too” (1290). This was Hughes saying that even though they have flaws, they still have so much to contribute to society. This essay quickly became a manifesto for many of the younger writers who wanted to use their rights to write about the degraded aspects of