Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance

Research Paper Outline

Langston Hughes contributed a tremendous influence on black culture throughout the United States during the era known as the Harlem Renaissance. He is usually considered to be one of the most prolific and most-recognized black poets of the Harlem Renaissance. He broke through barriers that very few black artists had done before this period. Hughes was presented with a great opportunity with the rise black art during the 1920's and by his creative style of poetry, which used black culture as its basis and still appealed to all ethnicities.

Introduction

Hughes was considered one of the leading voices in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s His first novel, not without Laughter (1930), Hughes wrote with the financial support of Charlotte Mason, a wealthy white woman. The book had a cordial reception and Hughes bought a Ford. He attended public schools in Kansas and Illinois, graduating from high school in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1920 (Dickinson, 50). His high school companions, most of whom were white, remembered him as a handsome "Indian-looking" youth whom everyone liked and respected for his quiet, natural ways and his abilities. He won an athletic letter in track and held offices in the student council and the American Civic Association. In his senior year he was chosen class poet and yearbook editor (Dickinson, 51).

He toured the colleges of southern America as a teacher and poet. Langston Hughes is an important figure in African-American literature. He is read widely and hailed today as the black poet laureate. He helped usher in the Harlem Renaissance and made the African-American voice a respected, meaningful addition to U.S. culture at home and abroad.

Hughes was one of the first black authors, who could support himself by his writings. In the 1930s Hughes traveled in the Soviet Union, Haiti, and Japan (Dickinson, 85).

Thesis Statement

It was Langston Hughes who gave real and audible voice to black people. Every word in his poems should be dealt with great awareness because, although the poems themselves are short, the words are highly effective, striking and expressive.

Author Profile

James Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, February 1, 1902. After his parents divorced, he was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to his mother to Lincoln, Illinois. Afterwards, he went to Cleveland, Ohio and he graduated from high school there (Barksdale, 200). He visited his father in Mexico and spent a year at Columbia University but, because of financial reasons, he traveled to Africa and Europe working as a seaman. When he returned, he settled down in Harlem, New York, in November 1924. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1929 (Barksdale, 200).

In the 1920s, he joined the Harlem Renaissance and with his outstanding works of art he became one of the leading figures of the movement.

He died of complications from prostate cancer in May 22, 1967. His residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem, New York City, has been given landmark status and ...