The Harlem Renaissance and Langston Hughes

1026 Words3 Pages

Langston Hughes was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the
Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s, which was the first major movement of African-
American life and culture. Hughes was influenced by living in New York City's Harlem, where his literary works helped shape American literature and politics. Hughes strong sense of racial pride helped him promote equality, celebrate African-
American culture, and condemn racism through his poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children's books (America’s Library).
Hughes is referred to as a literary phenomenon. He was one of the first African-
American men of literature who was determined to make a productive and profitable career out of his writing. The historical context of African-American literature during Hughes period was economic crisis, social tension, world war and oppression of race in mind, body and soul. Hughes lived through two world wars.
During the aftermath of World War II, he was in his forties. His writing career had matured and he had established himself a record of literary radicalism. Hughes was born and educated in the South during Jim Crow years. Although during most of his literary career Hughes was physically removed from the South, he did not forget its injustices. The Emmett Till murder case is a painful testimony of injustice in black history. It is fitting that Hughes wrote to about this case as well as his poem August 18th about a defendant in the Powell vs. Alabama case (Medria 1).

Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. Hughes was raised... ... middle of paper ...

...ryone in church and feels that everything is a lie.

Works Cited

Hughes, Langston. Salvation. Virgina: Commonwealth University, PDF file.
. “Langston Hughes.” 2014. The Biography Channel website. Feb 04 2014
07:14 http://www.biography.com/people/langston-hughes-9346313
Blue, Medria. "Langston Hughes: Artist and Historian." Yale-New Haven Teachers
Institute Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, Jan. 2014. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.

“Langston Hughes.” America’s Story from America’s Library. Library of Congress,
Jan. 2014. Web. 4 Feb. 2014
.

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