# Langston Hughes - Wikipedia #Omnivore [Read on Omnivore](https://omnivore.app/me/langston-hughes-wikipedia-18ff62734d7) [Read Original](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes) ## Highlights > <mark class="omni omni-red">According to Hughes, one of these men was Sam Clay, a Scottish-American whiskey distiller of [Henry County](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry%5FCounty,%5FKentucky "Henry County, Kentucky"), said to be a relative of statesman [Henry Clay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry%5FClay "Henry Clay").</mark> [⤴️](https://omnivore.app/me/langston-hughes-wikipedia-18ff62734d7#9c0dba8c-ec9e-4554-906e-78a55eb674d6) ^9c0dba8c > <mark class="omni omni-yellow">Ten years later, in 1869, the widow Mary Patterson Leary married again, into the elite, politically active Langston family. (See [The Talented Tenth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FTalented%5FTenth "The Talented Tenth").) Her second husband was [Charles Henry Langston](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles%5FHenry%5FLangston "Charles Henry Langston"), of African-American, Euro-American and Native American ancestry. He and his younger brother [John Mercer Langston](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John%5FMercer%5FLangston "John Mercer Langston") worked for the [abolitionist cause](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolitionism%5Fin%5Fthe%5FUnited%5FStates "Abolitionism in the United States") and helped lead the [Ohio Anti-Slavery Society](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio%5FAnti-Slavery%5FSociety "Ohio Anti-Slavery Society") in 1858.</mark> [⤴️](https://omnivore.app/me/langston-hughes-wikipedia-18ff62734d7#b4652591-df1b-4a73-8682-ca6ca478a32f) ^b4652591 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia **James Mercer Langston Hughes** (February 1, 1901 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from [Joplin, Missouri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joplin,%5FMissouri "Joplin, Missouri"). One of the earliest innovators of the literary art form called [jazz poetry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz%5Fpoetry "Jazz poetry"), Hughes is best known as a leader of the [Harlem Renaissance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem%5FRenaissance "Harlem Renaissance"). He famously wrote about the period that "the Negro was in vogue", which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue." Growing up in a series of [Midwestern](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midwestern "Midwestern") towns, Hughes became a prolific writer at an early age. He moved to New York City as a young man, where he made his career. He graduated from high school in [Cleveland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland "Cleveland"), Ohio, and soon began studies at [Columbia University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia%5FUniversity "Columbia University") in New York City. Although he dropped out, he gained notice from New York publishers, first in _[The Crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FCrisis "The Crisis")_ magazine and then from book publishers, and became known in the creative community in Harlem. His first poetry collection, _The Weary Blues_, was published in 1926\. Hughes eventually graduated from [Lincoln University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%5FUniversity%5F%28Pennsylvania%29 "Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)"). In addition to poetry, he wrote plays and published short story collections, novels, and several nonfiction works. From 1942 to 1962, as the [civil rights movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil%5Frights%5Fmovement "Civil rights movement") gained traction, Hughes wrote an in-depth weekly opinion column in a leading black newspaper, _[The Chicago Defender](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FChicago%5FDefender "The Chicago Defender")_. ## Biography ### Ancestry and childhood Like many African-Americans, Hughes was of mixed ancestry. Both of Hughes' paternal great-grandmothers were enslaved Africans, and both of his paternal great-grandfathers were white slave owners in Kentucky. ==According to Hughes, one of these men was Sam Clay, a Scottish-American whiskey distiller of== ==[Henry County](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry%5FCounty,%5FKentucky "Henry County, Kentucky")====, said to be a relative of statesman== ==[Henry Clay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry%5FClay "Henry Clay")====.== The other putative paternal ancestor whom Hughes named was Silas Cushenberry, a [slave trader](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slave%5Ftrader "Slave trader") of [Clark County](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark%5FCounty,%5FKentucky "Clark County, Kentucky"), who Hughes claimed to be [Jewish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews "Jews"). Hughes's maternal grandmother [Mary Patterson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary%5FSampson%5FPatterson%5FLeary%5FLangston "Mary Sampson Patterson Leary Langston") was of African-American, French, English and Native American descent. One of the first women to attend [Oberlin College](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberlin%5FCollege "Oberlin College"), she married [Lewis Sheridan Leary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis%5FSheridan%5FLeary "Lewis Sheridan Leary"), also of [mixed-race](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed-race "Mixed-race") descent, before her studies. In 1859, Lewis Leary joined [John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John%5FBrown%27s%5Fraid%5Fon%5FHarpers%5FFerry "John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry") in West Virginia, where he was fatally wounded. ==Ten years later, in 1869, the widow Mary Patterson Leary married again, into the elite, politically active Langston family. (See== ==[The Talented Tenth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FTalented%5FTenth "The Talented Tenth")====.) Her second husband was== ==[Charles Henry Langston](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles%5FHenry%5FLangston "Charles Henry Langston")====, of African-American, Euro-American and Native American ancestry. He and his younger brother== ==[John Mercer Langston](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John%5FMercer%5FLangston "John Mercer Langston")== ==worked for the== ==[abolitionist cause](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolitionism%5Fin%5Fthe%5FUnited%5FStates "Abolitionism in the United States")== ==and helped lead the== ==[Ohio Anti-Slavery Society](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio%5FAnti-Slavery%5FSociety "Ohio Anti-Slavery Society")== ==in 1858.== After their marriage, Charles Langston moved with his family to Kansas, where he was active as an educator and activist for voting and rights for African Americans. His and Mary's daughter [Caroline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie%5FLangston%5FHughes "Carrie Langston Hughes") (known as Carrie) became a schoolteacher and married James Nathaniel Hughes (1871–1934). They had two children; the second was Langston Hughes, by most sources born in 1901 in [Joplin, Missouri](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joplin,%5FMissouri "Joplin, Missouri") (though Hughes himself claims in his autobiography to have been born in 1902). [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Langston%5FHughes%5F1902.jpg) Hughes in 1902 Langston Hughes grew up in a series of Midwestern small towns. His father left the family soon after the boy was born and later divorced Carrie. The senior Hughes traveled to Cuba and then Mexico, seeking to escape the enduring [racism in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism%5Fin%5Fthe%5FUnited%5FStates "Racism in the United States"). After the separation, Hughes's mother traveled, seeking employment. Langston was raised mainly in [Lawrence, Kansas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence,%5FKansas "Lawrence, Kansas"), by his maternal grandmother, Mary Patterson Langston. Through the black American [oral tradition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral%5Ftradition "Oral tradition") and drawing from the activist experiences of her generation, Mary Langston instilled in her grandson a lasting sense of racial pride. Imbued by his grandmother with a duty to help his race, Hughes identified with neglected and downtrodden black people all his life, and glorified them in his work. He lived most of his childhood in Lawrence. In his 1940 autobiography _The Big Sea_, he wrote: "I was unhappy for a long time, and very lonesome, living with my grandmother. Then it was that books began to happen to me, and I began to believe in nothing but books and the wonderful world in books—where if people suffered, they suffered in beautiful language, not in monosyllables, as we did in Kansas." After the death of his grandmother, Hughes went to live with family friends, James and Auntie Mary Reed, for two years. Later, Hughes lived again with his mother Carrie in [Lincoln, Illinois](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln,%5FIllinois "Lincoln, Illinois"). She had remarried when he was an adolescent. The family moved to the [Fairfax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairfax,%5FCleveland "Fairfax, Cleveland") neighborhood of [Cleveland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleveland "Cleveland"), [Ohio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio "Ohio"), where he attended [Central High School](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central%5FHigh%5FSchool%5F%28Cleveland,%5FOhio%29 "Central High School (Cleveland, Ohio)") and was taught by [Helen Maria Chesnutt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen%5FMaria%5FChesnutt "Helen Maria Chesnutt"), whom he found inspiring. His writing experiments began when he was young. While in [grammar school](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar%5Fschool "Grammar school") in Lincoln, Hughes was elected class poet. He stated that in retrospect he thought it was because of the stereotype about African Americans having rhythm. > 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. During high school in Cleveland, Hughes wrote for the school newspaper, edited the yearbook, and began to write his first short stories, poetry, and dramatic plays. His first piece of jazz poetry, "When Sue Wears Red", was written while he was in high school. ### Relationship with father Hughes had a very poor relationship with his father, whom he seldom saw when a child. He lived briefly with his father in Mexico in 1919\. Upon graduating from high school in June 1920, Hughes returned to Mexico to live with his father, hoping to convince him to support his plan to attend [Columbia University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia%5FUniversity "Columbia University"). Hughes later said that, prior to arriving in Mexico, "I had been thinking about my father and his strange dislike of his own people. I didn't understand it, because I was a Negro, and I liked Negroes very much." His father had hoped Hughes would choose to study at a university abroad and train for a career in engineering. He was willing to provide financial assistance to his son on these grounds, but did not support his desire to be a writer. Eventually, Hughes and his father came to a compromise: Hughes would study engineering, so long as he could attend Columbia. His tuition provided, Hughes left his father after more than a year. While at Columbia in 1921, Hughes managed to maintain a B+ grade average. He published poetry in the _[Columbia Daily Spectator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia%5FDaily%5FSpectator "Columbia Daily Spectator")_ under a pen name. He left in 1922 because of racial prejudice among students and teachers. He was denied a room on campus because he was black. Eventually he settled in [Hartley Hall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartley%5FHall "Hartley Hall"), but he still suffered from racism among his classmates, who seemed hostile to anyone who did not fit into a [WASP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White%5FAnglo-Saxon%5FProtestants "White Anglo-Saxon Protestants") category. He was attracted more to the African-American people and neighborhood of [Harlem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem "Harlem") than to his studies, but he continued writing poetry. Harlem was a center of vibrant cultural life. ### Adulthood Hughes worked at various odd jobs before serving a brief tenure as a [crewman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crewman "Crewman") aboard the S.S. _Malone_ in 1923, spending six months traveling to West Africa and Europe. In Europe, Hughes left the S.S. _Malone_ for a temporary stay in Paris. There he met and had a romance with Anne Marie Coussey, a British-educated African from a well-to-do [Gold Coast](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold%5FCoast%5F%28British%5Fcolony%29 "Gold Coast (British colony)") family; they subsequently corresponded, but she eventually married [Hugh Wooding](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh%5FWooding "Hugh Wooding"), a promising [Trinidadian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinidad%5Fand%5FTobago "Trinidad and Tobago") lawyer. Wooding later served as chancellor of the [University of the West Indies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University%5Fof%5Fthe%5FWest%5FIndies "University of the West Indies"). During his time in England in the early 1920s, Hughes became part of [the black expatriate community](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%5FBritish#Early%5F20th%5Fcentury "Black British"). In November 1924, he returned to the U.S. to live with his mother in [Washington, D.C.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington,%5FD.C. "Washington, D.C.") After assorted odd jobs, he gained [white-collar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-collar%5Fworker "White-collar worker") employment in 1925 as a [personal assistant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal%5Fassistant "Personal assistant") to historian [Carter G. Woodson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter%5FG.%5FWoodson "Carter G. Woodson") at the [Association for the Study of African American Life and History](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association%5Ffor%5Fthe%5FStudy%5Fof%5FAfrican%5FAmerican%5FLife%5Fand%5FHistory "Association for the Study of African American Life and History"). As the work demands limited his time for writing, Hughes quit the position to work as a busboy at the [Wardman Park Hotel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardman%5FPark%5FHotel "Wardman Park Hotel"). Hughes's earlier work had been published in magazines and was about to be collected into his first book of poetry when he encountered poet [Vachel Lindsay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vachel%5FLindsay "Vachel Lindsay"), with whom he shared some poems. Impressed, Lindsay publicized his discovery of a new black poet. [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Langston%5FHughes%5FLincoln%5FUniversity%5F1928.jpg) Hughes at Lincoln University in 1928 The following year, Hughes enrolled in [Lincoln University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%5FUniversity%5F%28Pennsylvania%29 "Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)"), a [historically black university](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historically%5Fblack%5Fcolleges%5Fand%5Funiversities "Historically black colleges and universities") in [Chester County, Pennsylvania](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester%5FCounty,%5FPennsylvania "Chester County, Pennsylvania"). He joined the [Omega Psi Phi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omega%5FPsi%5FPhi "Omega Psi Phi") fraternity. After Hughes earned a [B.A.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor%5Fof%5FArts "Bachelor of Arts") degree from Lincoln University in 1929, he returned to New York. Except for travels to the [Soviet Union](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%5FUnion "Soviet Union") and parts of the [Caribbean](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean "Caribbean"), he lived in Harlem as his primary home for the remainder of his life. During the 1930s, he became a resident of [Westfield, New Jersey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfield,%5FNew%5FJersey "Westfield, New Jersey") for a time, sponsored by his patron [Charlotte Osgood Mason](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte%5FOsgood%5FMason "Charlotte Osgood Mason"). [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Langston%5FHughes%5FInterment.jpg) Hughes's ashes are interred under a [cosmogram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmogram "Cosmogram") medallion in the foyer of the Arthur Schomburg Center in Harlem ### Sexuality Some academics and biographers believe that Hughes was homosexual and included homosexual codes in many of his poems, as did [Walt Whitman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt%5FWhitman "Walt Whitman"), who, Hughes said, influenced his poetry. Hughes's story "Blessed Assurance" deals with a father's anger over his son's effeminacy and "queerness". The biographer Aldrich argues that, in order to retain the respect and support of [black churches](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%5Fchurches "Black churches") and organizations and avoid exacerbating his precarious financial situation, Hughes remained [closeted](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closeted "Closeted"). [Arnold Rampersad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold%5FRampersad "Arnold Rampersad"), the primary biographer of Hughes, determined that Hughes exhibited a preference for African-American men in his work and life. But, in his biography Rampersad denies Hughes's homosexuality, and concludes that Hughes was probably [asexual](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asexuality "Asexuality") and passive in his sexual relationships. Hughes did, however, show a respect and love for his fellow black man (and woman). Other scholars argue for his homosexuality: his love of black men is evidenced in a number of reported unpublished poems to an alleged black male lover. ## Career > from "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1920) > ... > 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 down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy > bosom turn all golden in the sunset. ... —in _The Weary Blues_ (1926) First published in 1921 in _[The Crisis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FCrisis "The Crisis")_—official magazine of the [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National%5FAssociation%5Ffor%5Fthe%5FAdvancement%5Fof%5FColored%5FPeople "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People") (NAACP)—"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" became Hughes's signature poem and was collected in his first book of poetry, _The Weary Blues_ (1926). Hughes's first and last published poems appeared in _The Crisis_; more of his poems were published in _The Crisis_ than in any other journal. Hughes' life and work were enormously influential during the [Harlem Renaissance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem%5FRenaissance "Harlem Renaissance") of the 1920s, alongside those of his contemporaries, [Zora Neale Hurston](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zora%5FNeale%5FHurston "Zora Neale Hurston"), [Wallace Thurman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace%5FThurman "Wallace Thurman"), [Claude McKay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude%5FMcKay "Claude McKay"), [Countee Cullen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countee%5FCullen "Countee Cullen"), [Richard Bruce Nugent](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard%5FBruce%5FNugent "Richard Bruce Nugent"), and [Aaron Douglas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron%5FDouglas%5F%28artist%29 "Aaron Douglas (artist)"). Except for McKay, they worked together also to create the short-lived magazine _[Fire!! Devoted to Younger Negro Artists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire!! "Fire!!")_. Hughes and his contemporaries had different goals and aspirations than the [black middle class](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American%5Fmiddle%5Fclass "African-American middle class"). Hughes and his fellows tried to depict the "low-life" in their art, that is, the real lives of blacks in the lower social-economic strata. They criticized the [divisions and prejudices within the black community based on skin color](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discrimination%5Fbased%5Fon%5Fskin%5Fcolor#United%5FStates "Discrimination based on skin color"). Hughes wrote what would be considered their manifesto, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain", published in _[The Nation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FNation "The Nation")_ in 1926: > The younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly, too. The [tom-tom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom-tom%5Fdrum "Tom-tom drum") cries, and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain free within ourselves. His poetry and fiction portrayed the lives of the working-class blacks in America, lives he portrayed as full of struggle, joy, laughter, and music. Permeating his work is pride in the African-American identity and its diverse culture. "My seeking has been to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America and obliquely that of all human kind", Hughes is quoted as saying. He confronted racial stereotypes, protested social conditions, and expanded African America's image of itself; a "people's poet" who sought to reeducate both audience and artist by lifting the theory of the black aesthetic into reality. > The night is beautiful, > So the faces of my people. > > The stars are beautiful, > So the eyes of my people > > Beautiful, also, is the sun. > Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people. —"My People" in _The Crisis_ (October 1923) Hughes stressed a racial consciousness and [cultural nationalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural%5Fnationalism "Cultural nationalism") devoid of self-hate. His thought united people of African descent and Africa across the globe to encourage pride in their diverse black [folk culture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folk%5Fculture "Folk culture") and [black aesthetic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FBlack%5FAesthetic "The Black Aesthetic"). Hughes was one of the few prominent black writers to champion racial consciousness as a source of inspiration for black artists. His African-American race consciousness and cultural nationalism would influence many foreign black writers, including [Jacques Roumain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques%5FRoumain "Jacques Roumain"), [Nicolás Guillén](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicol%C3%A1s%5FGuill%C3%A9n "Nicolás Guillén"), [Léopold Sédar Senghor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9opold%5FS%C3%A9dar%5FSenghor "Léopold Sédar Senghor"), and [Aimé Césaire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aim%C3%A9%5FC%C3%A9saire "Aimé Césaire"). Along with the works of Senghor, Césaire, and other [French-speaking writers of Africa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African%5FFrench "African French") and of African descent from the Caribbean, such as [René Maran](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9%5FMaran "René Maran") from [Martinique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinique "Martinique") and [Léon Damas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on%5FDamas "Léon Damas") from [French Guiana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French%5FGuiana "French Guiana") in South America, the works of Hughes helped to inspire the [Négritude](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A9gritude "Négritude") movement in France. A radical black self-examination was emphasized in the face of [European colonialism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European%5Fcolonialism "European colonialism"). In addition to his example in social attitudes, Hughes had an important technical influence by his emphasis on folk and jazz rhythms as the basis of his poetry of racial pride. In 1930, his first novel, _[Not Without Laughter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not%5FWithout%5FLaughter "Not Without Laughter")_, won the [Harmon Gold Medal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmon%5FGold%5FMedal "Harmon Gold Medal") for literature. At a time before widespread arts grants, Hughes gained the support of private patrons and he was supported for two years prior to publishing this novel. The protagonist of the story is a boy named Sandy, whose family must deal with a variety of struggles due to their race and class, in addition to relating to one another. In 1931, Hughes helped form the "New York Suitcase Theater" with playwright Paul Peters, artist [Jacob Burck](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob%5FBurck "Jacob Burck"), and writer (soon-to-be underground spy) [Whittaker Chambers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whittaker%5FChambers "Whittaker Chambers"), an acquaintance from Columbia. In 1932, he was part of a board to produce a Soviet film on "Negro Life" with [Malcolm Cowley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm%5FCowley "Malcolm Cowley"), [Floyd Dell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd%5FDell "Floyd Dell"), and Chambers. In 1931 [Prentiss Taylor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prentiss%5FTaylor "Prentiss Taylor") and Langston Hughes created the [Golden Stair Press](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Golden%5FStair%5FPress&action=edit&redlink=1 "Golden Stair Press (page does not exist)"), issuing broadsides and books featuring the artwork of Prentiss Taylor and the texts of Langston Hughes. In 1932 they issued The Scottsboro Limited based on the trial of the [Scottsboro Boys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottsboro%5FBoys "Scottsboro Boys"). In 1932, Hughes and Ellen Winter wrote a pageant to [Caroline Decker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline%5FDecker "Caroline Decker") in an attempt to celebrate her work with the striking coal miners of the [Harlan County War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan%5FCounty%5FWar "Harlan County War"), but it was never performed. It was judged to be a "long, artificial propaganda vehicle too complicated and too cumbersome to be performed." [Maxim Lieber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxim%5FLieber "Maxim Lieber") became his literary agent, 1933–1945 and 1949–1950\. (Chambers and Lieber worked in the underground together around 1934–1935.) [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ways%5Fof%5Fwhite%5Ffolks%5Fcover.jpg) _[The Ways of White Folks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FWays%5Fof%5FWhite%5FFolks "The Ways of White Folks")_, Hughes' first short story collection Hughes' first collection of short stories was published in 1934 with _[The Ways of White Folks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FWays%5Fof%5FWhite%5FFolks "The Ways of White Folks")_. He finished the book at "Ennesfree" a [Carmel-by-the-Sea, California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmel-by-the-Sea,%5FCalifornia "Carmel-by-the-Sea, California"), cottage provided for a year by Noel Sullivan, another patron since 1933\. These stories are a series of vignettes revealing the humorous and tragic interactions between whites and blacks. Overall, they are marked by a general pessimism about race relations, as well as a sardonic realism.: p207 He also became an advisory board member to the (then) newly formed [San Francisco Workers' School](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San%5FFrancisco%5FWorkers%27%5FSchool "San Francisco Workers' School") (later the [California Labor School](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California%5FLabor%5FSchool "California Labor School")). In 1935, Hughes received a [Guggenheim Fellowship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guggenheim%5FFellowship "Guggenheim Fellowship"). The same year that Hughes established his theatre troupe in Los Angeles, he realized an ambition related to films by co-writing the screenplay for _[Way Down South](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way%5FDown%5FSouth%5F%28film%29 "Way Down South (film)"),_ co-written with [Clarence Muse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence%5FMuse "Clarence Muse"), African-American Hollywood actor and musician.: p366-369 Hughes believed his failure to gain more work in the lucrative movie trade was due to racial discrimination within the industry. In 1937 Hughes wrote the long poem, _Madrid_, his reaction to an assignment to write about black Americans volunteering in the [Spanish Civil War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%5FCivil%5FWar "Spanish Civil War"). His poem, accompanied by 9 etchings evoking the pathos of the Spanish Civil War by Canadian artist [Dalla Husband](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalla%5FHusband "Dalla Husband"), was published in 1939 as a hardcover book _Madrid 1937_, printed by Gonzalo Moré, Paris, intended to be an edition of 50\. One example of the book, _Madrid 37_, signed in pencil and annotated as II \[Roman numeral two\] has appeared on the rare book market. In Chicago, Hughes founded _The Skyloft Players_ in 1941, which sought to nurture black playwrights and offer theatre "from the black perspective." Soon thereafter, he was hired to write a column for the _[Chicago Defender](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago%5FDefender "Chicago Defender")_, in which he presented some of his "most powerful and relevant work", giving voice to black people. The column ran for twenty years. Hughes also mentored writer [Richard Durham](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard%5FDurham "Richard Durham") who would later produce a sequence about Hughes in the radio series _[Destination Freedom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destination%5FFreedom "Destination Freedom")_. In 1943, Hughes began publishing stories about a character he called Jesse B. Semple, often referred to and spelled "Simple", the everyday black man in Harlem who offered musings on topical issues of the day. Although Hughes seldom responded to requests to teach at colleges, in 1947 he taught at [Atlanta University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta%5FUniversity "Atlanta University"). In 1949, he spent three months at the [University of Chicago Laboratory Schools](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University%5Fof%5FChicago%5FLaboratory%5FSchools "University of Chicago Laboratory Schools") as a visiting lecturer. Between 1942 and 1949, Hughes was a frequent writer and served on the editorial board of _[Common Ground](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common%5FGround%5F%28magazine%29 "Common Ground (magazine)")_, a literary magazine focused on cultural pluralism in the United States published by the Common Council for American Unity (CCAU). He wrote novels, short stories, plays, poetry, operas, essays, and works for children. With the encouragement of his best friend and writer, [Arna Bontemps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arna%5FBontemps "Arna Bontemps"), and patron and friend, [Carl Van Vechten](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl%5FVan%5FVechten "Carl Van Vechten"), he wrote two volumes of autobiography, _The Big Sea_ and _I Wonder as I Wander_, as well as translating several works of literature into English. With Bontemps, Hughes co-edited the 1949 anthology _The Poetry of the Negro_, described by _[The New York Times](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FNew%5FYork%5FTimes "The New York Times")_ as "a stimulating cross-section of the imaginative writing of the Negro" that demonstrates "talent to the point where one questions the necessity (other than for its social evidence) of the specialization of 'Negro' in the title". [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Langston%5FHughes.jpg) Langston Hughes, 1943\. Photo by [Gordon Parks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon%5FParks "Gordon Parks") From the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s, Hughes' popularity among the younger generation of black writers varied even as his reputation increased worldwide. With the gradual advance toward [racial integration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial%5Fintegration "Racial integration"), many black writers considered his writings of black pride and its corresponding subject matter out of date. They considered him a racial chauvinist. He found some new writers, among them [James Baldwin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James%5FBaldwin "James Baldwin"), lacking in such pride, over-intellectual in their work, and occasionally vulgar. Hughes wanted young black writers to be objective about their race, but not to scorn it or flee it. He understood the main points of the [Black Power](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%5FPower "Black Power") movement of the 1960s, but believed that some of the younger black writers who supported it were too angry in their work. Hughes's work _Panther and the Lash_, posthumously published in 1967, was intended to show solidarity with these writers, but with more skill and devoid of the most virulent anger and racial chauvinism some showed toward whites. Hughes continued to have admirers among the larger younger generation of black writers. He often helped writers by offering advice and introducing them to other influential persons in the literature and publishing communities. This latter group, including [Alice Walker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%5FWalker "Alice Walker"), whom Hughes discovered, looked upon Hughes as a hero and an example to be emulated within their own work. One of these young black writers ([Loften Mitchell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loften%5FMitchell "Loften Mitchell")) observed of Hughes: > Langston set a tone, a standard of brotherhood and friendship and cooperation, for all of us to follow. You never got from him, 'I am _the_ Negro writer,' but only 'I am _a_ Negro writer.' He never stopped thinking about the rest of us. ## Political views Hughes was drawn to [Communism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism "Communism") as an alternative to a [segregated](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial%5Fsegregation "Racial segregation") America. Many of his lesser-known political writings have been collected in two volumes published by the [University of Missouri Press](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University%5Fof%5FMissouri%5FPress "University of Missouri Press") and reflect his attraction to Communism. An example is the poem "A New Song".\[_[original research?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No%5Foriginal%5Fresearch "Wikipedia:No original research")_\] In 1932, Hughes became part of a group of black people who went to the [Soviet Union](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%5FUnion "Soviet Union") to make a film depicting the plight of African Americans in the United States. Hughes was hired to write the English dialogue for the film. The film was never made, but Hughes was given the opportunity to travel extensively through the Soviet Union and to the Soviet-controlled regions in Central Asia, the latter parts usually closed to Westerners. While there, he met [Robert Robinson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert%5FRobinson%5F%28engineer%29 "Robert Robinson (engineer)"), an African American living in [Moscow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow "Moscow") and unable to leave. In [Turkmenistan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkmenistan "Turkmenistan"), Hughes met and befriended the Hungarian author [Arthur Koestler](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur%5FKoestler "Arthur Koestler"), then a Communist who was given permission to travel there. As later noted in Koestler's autobiography, Hughes, together with some forty other Black Americans, had originally been invited to the Soviet Union to produce a Soviet film on "Negro Life", but the Soviets dropped the film idea because of their 1933 success in getting the US to recognize the Soviet Union and establish an embassy in Moscow. This entailed a toning down of Soviet propaganda on racial segregation in America. Hughes and his fellow Blacks were not informed of the reasons for the cancellation, but he and Koestler worked it out for themselves. Hughes also managed to travel to China, Japan, and Korea before returning to the States. Hughes's poetry was frequently published in the [CPUSA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist%5FParty%5FUSA "Communist Party USA") newspaper and he was involved in initiatives supported by Communist organizations, such as the drive to free the [Scottsboro Boys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottsboro%5FBoys "Scottsboro Boys"). Partly as a show of support for the [Republican](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second%5FSpanish%5FRepublic "Second Spanish Republic") faction during the [Spanish Civil War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish%5FCivil%5FWar "Spanish Civil War"), in 1937 Hughes traveled to Spain as a correspondent for the _Baltimore Afro-American_ and other various African-American newspapers. In August 1937, he broadcast live from Madrid alongside [Harry Haywood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry%5FHaywood "Harry Haywood") and [Walter Benjamin Garland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter%5FBenjamin%5FGarland "Walter Benjamin Garland"). When Hughes was in Spain a Spanish Republican cultural magazine, _[El Mono Azul](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El%5FMono%5FAzul "El Mono Azul")_, featured Spanish translations of his poems. In November 1937 Hughes departed Spain for which _El Mono Azul_ published a brief farewell message entitled "el gran poeta de raza negra" ("the great poet of the black race"). Hughes was also involved in other Communist-led organizations such as the [John Reed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John%5FReed%5F%28journalist%29 "John Reed (journalist)") Clubs and the [League of Struggle for Negro Rights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League%5Fof%5FStruggle%5Ffor%5FNegro%5FRights "League of Struggle for Negro Rights"). He was more of a sympathizer than an active participant. He signed a 1938 statement supporting [Joseph Stalin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph%5FStalin "Joseph Stalin")'s [purges](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow%5FTrials "Moscow Trials") and joined the [American Peace Mobilization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American%5FPeace%5FMobilization "American Peace Mobilization") in 1940 working to keep the U.S. from participating in [World War II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%5FWar%5FII "World War II"). Hughes initially did not favor black American involvement in the war because of the persistence of discriminatory U.S. [Jim Crow laws](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim%5FCrow%5Flaws "Jim Crow laws") and racial segregation and disfranchisement throughout the South. He came to support the war effort and black American participation after deciding that war service would aid their struggle for [civil rights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil%5Frights "Civil rights") at home. The scholar [Anthony Pinn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony%5FPinn "Anthony Pinn") has noted that Hughes, together with [Lorraine Hansberry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorraine%5FHansberry "Lorraine Hansberry") and [Richard Wright](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard%5FWright%5F%28author%29 "Richard Wright (author)"), was a humanist "critical of belief in God. They provided a foundation for nontheistic participation in social struggle." Pinn has found that such writers are sometimes ignored in the narrative of American history that chiefly credits the civil rights movement to the work of affiliated Christian people. Hughes was accused of being a Communist by many on the political right, but he always denied it. When asked why he never joined the Communist Party, he wrote, "it was based on strict discipline and the acceptance of directives that I, as a writer, did not wish to accept." In 1953, he was called before the [Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United%5FStates%5FSenate%5FHomeland%5FSecurity%5Fand%5FGovernmental%5FAffairs%5FPermanent%5FSubcommittee%5Fon%5FInvestigations "United States Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations") led by Senator [Joseph McCarthy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph%5FMcCarthy "Joseph McCarthy"). He stated, "I never read the theoretical books of socialism or communism or the Democratic or Republican parties for that matter, and so my interest in whatever may be considered political has been non-theoretical, non-sectarian, and largely emotional and born out of my own need to find some way of thinking about this whole problem of myself." Following his testimony, Hughes distanced himself from Communism. He was rebuked by some on the Radical Left who had previously supported him. He moved away from overtly political poems and towards more lyric subjects. When selecting his poetry for his _Selected Poems_ (1959) he excluded all his radical socialist verse from the 1930s. These critics on the Left were unaware of the secret interrogation that took place days before the televised hearing. ## Death On May 22, 1967, Hughes died in the [Stuyvesant Polyclinic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuyvesant%5FPolyclinic "Stuyvesant Polyclinic") in New York City at the age of 66 from complications after abdominal surgery related to [prostate cancer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostate%5Fcancer "Prostate cancer"). His ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion in the middle of the foyer in the [Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schomburg%5FCenter%5Ffor%5FResearch%5Fin%5FBlack%5FCulture "Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture") in Harlem. It is the entrance to an auditorium named for him. The design on the floor is an African [cosmogram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmogram "Cosmogram") entitled _Rivers_. The title is taken from his poem "[The Negro Speaks of Rivers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FNegro%5FSpeaks%5Fof%5FRivers "The Negro Speaks of Rivers")". Within the center of the cosmogram is the line: "My soul has grown deep like the rivers". ## Representation in other media [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Langston%5FHughes%5F-%5FDanse%5FAfricaine%5F-%5FNieuwe%5FRijn%5F46,%5FLeiden.JPG) The poem "Danse Africaine" as wall poem on a wall of the building at the [Nieuwe Rijn](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nieuwe%5FRijn&action=edit&redlink=1 "Nieuwe Rijn (page does not exist)") \[[nl](https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nieuwe%5FRijn "nl:Nieuwe Rijn")\] 46, [Leiden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiden "Leiden"), Netherlands Hughes was featured reciting his poetry on the album _[Weary Blues](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weary%5FBlues%5F%28album%29 "Weary Blues (album)")_ (MGM, 1959), with music by [Charles Mingus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles%5FMingus "Charles Mingus") and [Leonard Feather](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard%5FFeather "Leonard Feather"), and he also contributed lyrics to [Randy Weston](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy%5FWeston "Randy Weston")'s _[Uhuru Afrika](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uhuru%5FAfrika "Uhuru Afrika")_ (Roulette, 1960). [Harry Burleigh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry%5FBurleigh "Harry Burleigh") set the poem "Lovely, dark, and lonely one" from the 1932 collection _The Dream Keeper and Other Poems_ to music in 1935, his last [art song](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art%5Fsong "Art song"). Italian composer [Mira Sulpizi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mira%5FSulpizi "Mira Sulpizi") set Hughes' text to music in her 1968 song "Lyrics". Hughes' life has been portrayed in film and stage productions since the late 20th century. In _[Looking for Langston](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looking%5Ffor%5FLangston "Looking for Langston")_ (1989), British filmmaker [Isaac Julien](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac%5FJulien "Isaac Julien") claimed him as a black gay icon—Julien thought that Hughes' sexuality had historically been ignored or downplayed. Film portrayals of Hughes include [Gary LeRoi Gray](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary%5FLeRoi%5FGray "Gary LeRoi Gray")'s role as a teenage Hughes in the short subject film _Salvation_ (2003) (based on a portion of his autobiography _The Big Sea_), and [Daniel Sunjata](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel%5FSunjata "Daniel Sunjata") as Hughes in the _[Brother to Brother](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother%5Fto%5FBrother%5F%28film%29 "Brother to Brother (film)")_ (2004). _Hughes' Dream Harlem_, a documentary by [Jamal Joseph](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal%5FJoseph "Jamal Joseph"), examines Hughes' works and environment. _Paper Armor_ (1999) by Eisa Davis and _Hannibal of the Alps_ (2005) by Michael Dinwiddie are plays by African-American playwrights that address Hughes's sexuality. [Spike Lee](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike%5FLee "Spike Lee")'s 1996 film _[Get on the Bus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get%5Fon%5Fthe%5FBus "Get on the Bus")_, included a black gay character, played by [Isaiah Washington](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaiah%5FWashington "Isaiah Washington"), who invokes the name of Hughes and punches a homophobic character, saying: "This is for James Baldwin and Langston Hughes." Hughes was also featured prominently in a national campaign sponsored by the [Center for Inquiry](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center%5Ffor%5FInquiry "Center for Inquiry") (CFI) known as [African Americans for Humanism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African%5FAmericans%5Ffor%5FHumanism "African Americans for Humanism"). Hughes' _Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz_, written in 1960, was performed for the first time in March 2009 with specially composed music by [Laura Karpman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura%5FKarpman "Laura Karpman") at [Carnegie Hall](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie%5FHall "Carnegie Hall"), at the _Honor_ festival curated by [Jessye Norman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jessye%5FNorman "Jessye Norman") in celebration of the African-American cultural legacy. _Ask Your Mama_ is the centerpiece of "The Langston Hughes Project", a multimedia concert performance directed by Ron McCurdy, professor of music in the [Thornton School of Music](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornton%5FSchool%5Fof%5FMusic "Thornton School of Music") at the [University of Southern California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University%5Fof%5FSouthern%5FCalifornia "University of Southern California"). The European premiere of The Langston Hughes Project, featuring [Ice-T](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice-T "Ice-T") and McCurdy, took place at the [Barbican Centre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbican%5FCentre "Barbican Centre"), [London](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London "London"), on November 21, 2015, as part of the [London Jazz Festival](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London%5FJazz%5FFestival "London Jazz Festival") mounted by music producers Serious. The novel _Harlem Mosaics_ (2012) by Whit Frazier depicts the friendship between Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, and tells the story of how their friendship fell apart during their collaboration on the play _Mule Bone_. On September 22, 2016, his poem "[I, Too](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I,%5FToo "I, Too")" was printed on a full page of _The New York Times_ in response to the riots of the previous day in Charlotte, North Carolina. ## Literary archives The [Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beinecke%5FRare%5FBook%5F%26%5FManuscript%5FLibrary "Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library") at [Yale University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale%5FUniversity "Yale University") holds the Langston Hughes papers (1862–1980) and the Langston Hughes collection (1924–1969) containing letters, manuscripts, personal items, photographs, clippings, artworks, and objects that document the life of Hughes. The Langston Hughes Memorial Library on the campus of [Lincoln University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln%5FUniversity%5F%28Pennsylvania%29 "Lincoln University (Pennsylvania)"), as well as at the [James Weldon Johnson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James%5FWeldon%5FJohnson "James Weldon Johnson") Collection within the [Yale University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale%5FUniversity "Yale University") also hold archives of Hughes' work. The [Moorland–Spingarn Research Center](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorland%E2%80%93Spingarn%5FResearch%5FCenter "Moorland–Spingarn Research Center") at Howard University includes materials acquired from his travels and contacts through the work of [Dorothy B. Porter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy%5FB.%5FPorter "Dorothy B. Porter"). ## Honors and awards ### Living * 1926: Hughes won the Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry Prize. * 1935: Hughes was awarded a [Guggenheim Fellowship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guggenheim%5FFellowship "Guggenheim Fellowship"), which allowed him to travel to Spain and Russia. * 1941: Hughes was awarded a fellowship from the [Rosenwald Fund](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenwald%5FFund "Rosenwald Fund"). * 1943: Lincoln University awarded Hughes an honorary [Litt.D.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor%5Fof%5FLetters "Doctor of Letters") * 1954: Hughes won the [Anisfield-Wolf Book Award](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anisfield-Wolf%5FBook%5FAward "Anisfield-Wolf Book Award"). * 1960: the [NAACP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National%5FAssociation%5Ffor%5Fthe%5FAdvancement%5Fof%5FColored%5FPeople "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People") awarded Hughes the [Spingarn Medal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spingarn%5FMedal "Spingarn Medal") for distinguished achievements by an African American. * 1961: [National Institute of Arts and Letters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American%5FAcademy%5Fof%5FArts%5Fand%5FLetters "American Academy of Arts and Letters"). * 1963: [Howard University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard%5FUniversity "Howard University") awarded Hughes an honorary [doctorate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctorate "Doctorate"). * 1964: [Western Reserve University](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western%5FReserve%5FUniversity "Western Reserve University") awarded Hughes an honorary Litt.D. ### Memorial * 1978: the first [Langston Hughes Medal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston%5FHughes%5FMedal "Langston Hughes Medal") was awarded by the [City College of New York](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City%5FCollege%5Fof%5FNew%5FYork "City College of New York"). * 1979: [Langston Hughes Middle School](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston%5FHughes%5FMiddle%5FSchool "Langston Hughes Middle School") was created in [Reston, Virginia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reston,%5FVirginia "Reston, Virginia"). * 1981: New York City Landmark status was given to the Harlem home of Langston Hughes at 20 East 127th Street ([40°48′26″N 73°56′26″W / 40.80722°N 73.94056°W](https://geohack.toolforge.org/geohack.php?pagename=Langston%5FHughes¶ms=40%5F48%5F26%5FN%5F73%5F56%5F26%5FW%5Fregion:US)) by the [New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New%5FYork%5FCity%5FLandmarks%5FPreservation%5FCommission "New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission") and 127th Street was renamed "Langston Hughes Place". The [Langston Hughes House](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston%5FHughes%5FHouse "Langston Hughes House") was listed on the [National Register of Historic Places](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National%5FRegister%5Fof%5FHistoric%5FPlaces "National Register of Historic Places") in 1982. * 2002: The United States Postal Service added the image of Langston Hughes to its Black Heritage series of postage stamps. * 2002: scholar [Molefi Kete Asante](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molefi%5FKete%5FAsante "Molefi Kete Asante") listed Langston Hughes on his list of _[100 Greatest African Americans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100%5FGreatest%5FAfrican%5FAmericans "100 Greatest African Americans")_. * 2009: [Langston Hughes High School](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston%5FHughes%5FHigh%5FSchool "Langston Hughes High School") was created in [Fairburn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairburn,%5FGeorgia "Fairburn, Georgia"), [Georgia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia%5F%28U.S.%5Fstate%29 "Georgia (U.S. state)"). * 2012: inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. * 2015: [Google Doodle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%5FDoodle "Google Doodle") commemorated his 113th birthday. ## | Poetry collections _[The Weary Blues](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FWeary%5FBlues "The Weary Blues")_, Knopf, 1926 _[Fine Clothes to the Jew](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fine%5FClothes%5Fto%5Fthe%5FJew "Fine Clothes to the Jew")_, Knopf, 1927 _The Negro Mother and Other Dramatic Recitations_, 1931 _Dear Lovely Death_, 1931 _The Dream Keeper and Other Poems_, Knopf, 1932 _Scottsboro Limited: Four Poems and a Play_, Golden Stair Press, N.Y., 1932 _A New Song_ (1938, incl. the poem "[Let America be America Again](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%5FAmerica%5Fbe%5FAmerica%5FAgain "Let America be America Again")") _Madrid 1937_ with etchings by [Dalla Husband](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalla%5FHusband "Dalla Husband"), Gonzalo More, Paris, 1939 _[Note on Commercial Theatre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note%5Fon%5FCommercial%5FTheatre "Note on Commercial Theatre")_, 1940 _Shakespeare in Harlem_, Knopf, 1942 _Freedom's Plow_, New York: Musette Publishers, 1943 _Jim Crow's Last Stand_, Atlanta: Negro Publication Society of America, 1943 _[Lament for Dark Peoples and Other Poems](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lament%5Ffor%5FDark%5FPeoples%5Fand%5FOther%5FPoems&action=edit&redlink=1 "Lament for Dark Peoples and Other Poems (page does not exist)")_, 1944 _Lenin_, 1946 _Fields of Wonder_, Knopf, 1947 _One-Way Ticket_, 1949 _[Montage of a Dream Deferred](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montage%5Fof%5Fa%5FDream%5FDeferred "Montage of a Dream Deferred")_, Holt, 1951 _Selected Poems of Langston Hughes_, 1958 _Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz_, Hill & Wang, 1961 _The Panther and the Lash: Poems of Our Times_, 1967 _The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes_, Knopf, 1994 Novels and short story collections _[Not Without Laughter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not%5FWithout%5FLaughter "Not Without Laughter")_. Knopf, 1930 _[The Ways of White Folks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FWays%5Fof%5FWhite%5FFolks "The Ways of White Folks")_, Knopf, 1934 _Simple Speaks His Mind_, 1950 _Laughing to Keep from Crying_, Holt, 1952 _Simple Takes a Wife_, 1953 _[The Sweet Flypaper of Life](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FSweet%5FFlypaper%5Fof%5FLife "The Sweet Flypaper of Life")_, photographs by [Roy DeCarava](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy%5FDeCarava "Roy DeCarava"). 1955 _Simple Stakes a Claim_, 1957 _Tambourines to Glory_, 1958 _The Best of Simple_, 1961 _Simple's Uncle Sam_, 1965 _Something in Common and Other Stories_, Hill & Wang, 1963 _Short Stories of Langston Hughes_, Hill & Wang, 1996 | Non-fiction books _The Big Sea_, New York: Knopf, 1940 _Famous American Negroes_, 1954 _Famous Negro Music Makers_, New York: Dodd, Mead, 1955 _I Wonder as I Wander_, New York: Rinehart & Co., 1956 _A Pictorial History of the Negro in America_, with [Milton Meltzer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton%5FMeltzer "Milton Meltzer"). 1956 _Famous Negro Heroes of America_, 1958 _Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP_. 1962 _Black Magic: A Pictorial History of the Negro in American Entertainment,_ with [Milton Meltzer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton%5FMeltzer "Milton Meltzer"), 1967 Major plays _[Mule Bone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mule%5FBone "Mule Bone")_, with Zora Neale Hurston, 1931 _[Mulatto](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulatto%5F%28play%29 "Mulatto (play)")_, 1935 (renamed _The Barrier_, an opera, in 1950) _[Troubled Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubled%5FIsland "Troubled Island")_, with [William Grant Still](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William%5FGrant%5FStill "William Grant Still"), 1936 _Little Ham_, 1936 _Emperor of Haiti_, 1936 _Don't You Want to be Free?_, 1938 _[Street Scene](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street%5FScene%5F%28opera%29 "Street Scene (opera)")_, contributed lyrics, 1947 _[Tambourines to Glory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tambourines%5Fto%5FGlory "Tambourines to Glory")_, 1956 _[Simply Heavenly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simply%5FHeavenly "Simply Heavenly")_, 1957 _[Black Nativity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%5FNativity "Black Nativity")_, 1961 _Five Plays by Langston Hughes_, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1963 _[Jerico-Jim Crow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerico-Jim%5FCrow "Jerico-Jim Crow")_, 1964 Books for children _Popo and Fifina, with Arna Bontemps_, 1932 _The First Book of Negroes_, 1952 _The First Book of Jazz_, 1954 _[Marian Anderson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian%5FAnderson "Marian Anderson"): Famous Concert Singer_, with Steven C. Tracy, 1954 _The First Book of Rhythms_, 1954 _The First Book of the West Indies_, 1956 _First Book of Africa_, 1964 _Black Misery_, illustrated by Arouni, 1969; reprinted 1994, Oxford University Press. As editor _The Poetry of the Negro, 1746–1949: an anthology_, edited with [Arna Bontemps](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arna%5FBontemps "Arna Bontemps"), Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1949. | | 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| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ## Other writings * _The Langston Hughes Reader_, New York: Braziller, 1958. * _Good Morning Revolution: Uncollected Social Protest Writings by Langston Hughes_, Lawrence Hill, 1973. * _The Collected Works of Langston Hughes_, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2001. * _The Selected Letters of Langston Hughes_, edited by Arnold Rampersad and David Roessel. Knopf, 2014. * ["My Adventures as a Social Poet" (essay)](https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20080528221214/http://negroartist.com/writings/My%20Adventures%20as%20a%20Social%20Poet.pdf), _Phylon_, 3rd Quarter 1947. * ["The Negro Artist and The Racial Mountain" (article)](http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/360.html), _The Nation_, June 23, 1926. ## See also * [African-American literature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American%5Fliterature "African-American literature") * [Langston Hughes Society](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston%5FHughes%5FSociety "Langston Hughes Society") * [Pan-Africanism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Africanism "Pan-Africanism") ## References ### Citations 1. **[^](#cite%5Fref-1 "Jump up")** Schuessler, Jennifer (August 9, 2018). ["Langston Hughes Just Got a Year Older"](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/09/arts/langston-hughes-birth-date.html). _[The New York Times](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FNew%5FYork%5FTimes "The New York Times")_. 2. **[^](#cite%5Fref-2 "Jump up")** Francis, Ted (2002). [_Realism in the Novels of the Harlem Renaissance_](https://books.google.com/books?id=82XIw4ykVAAC&pg=PA28). 3. **[^](#cite%5Fref-FOOTNOTEHughes2001[httpsbooksgooglecombooksidSsgPcfpjhBcCpgPA36%5F36]%5F3-0 "Jump up")** [Hughes 2001](#CITEREFHughes2001), p. [36](https://books.google.com/books?id=SsgPcfpjhBcC&pg=PA36). 4. ^ [Jump up to: _**a**_](#cite%5Fref-Berry%5F4-0) [_**b**_](#cite%5Fref-Berry%5F4-1) Faith Berry, [_Langston Hughes, Before and Beyond Harlem_](https://books.google.com/books?id=4pibsBTGIssC&pg=PA3), Westport, Connecticut: Lawrence Hill & Co., 1983; reprint, Citadel Press, 1992, p. 1. 5. **[^](#cite%5Fref-5 "Jump up")** ["Langston Hughes on his racial and ethnic background"](http://www.kansashistory.us/hughestext.html). _Kansas History_. 6. ^ [Jump up to: _**a**_](#cite%5Fref-kshs.org%5F6-0) [_**b**_](#cite%5Fref-kshs.org%5F6-1) Richard B. Sheridan, ["Charles Henry Langston and the African American Struggle in Kansas"](http://www.kshs.org/publicat/history/1999winter%5Fsheridan.pdf), _Kansas State History_, Winter 1999\. Retrieved December 15, 2008. 7. **[^](#cite%5Fref-7 "Jump up")** Laurie F. Leach, _Langston Hughes: A Biography_, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, pp. 2–4\. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0313324970](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0313324970 "Special:BookSources/978-0313324970"), 8. **[^](#cite%5Fref-8 "Jump up")** ["Ohio Anti-Slavery Society – Ohio History Central"](http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=938). _ohiohistorycentral.org_. 9. **[^](#cite%5Fref-scholar%5F9-0 "Jump up")** ["African-Native American Scholars"](https://web.archive.org/web/20180815024309/http://redblackscholars.wearetheones.org/scholarship.html). African-Native American Scholars. 2008\. Archived from [the original](http://redblackscholars.wearetheones.org/scholarship.html) on August 15, 2018. 10. **[^](#cite%5Fref-10 "Jump up")** William and Aimee Lee Cheek, "John Mercer Langston: Principle and Politics", in [Leon F. Litwack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon%5FF.%5FLitwack "Leon F. Litwack") and August Meier (eds), _Black Leaders of the Nineteenth Century_, University of Illinois Press, 1991, pp. 106–111. 11. **[^](#cite%5Fref-FOOTNOTEHughes200113%5F11-0 "Jump up")** [Hughes 2001](#CITEREFHughes2001), p. 13. 12. **[^](#cite%5Fref-12 "Jump up")** West, _Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance_, 2003, p. 160. 13. **[^](#cite%5Fref-13 "Jump up")** Hughes recalled his maternal grandmother's stories: "Through my grandmother's stories life always moved, moved heroically toward an end. Nobody ever cried in my grandmother's stories. They worked, schemed, or fought. But no crying." Rampersad, Arnold, & David Roessel (2002). _The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes_, Knopf, p. 620. 14. **[^](#cite%5Fref-14 "Jump up")** The poem "Aunt Sues's Stories" (1921) is an oblique tribute to his grandmother and his loving "Auntie" Mary Reed, a close family friend. Rampersad, vol. 1, 1986, p. 43. 15. **[^](#cite%5Fref-15 "Jump up")** [Brooks, Gwendolyn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwendolyn%5FBrooks "Gwendolyn Brooks") (October 12, 1986), "The Darker Brother", _[The New York Times](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FNew%5FYork%5FTimes "The New York Times")_. 16. **[^](#cite%5Fref-16 "Jump up")** Arnold Rampersad, [_The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume II: 1914–1967, I Dream a World_](https://books.google.com/books?id=qclO9rdN1XIC&pg=PA11), Oxford University Press, p. 11\. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0195146431](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0195146431 "Special:BookSources/978-0195146431") 17. **[^](#cite%5Fref-17 "Jump up")** Central High School (Cleveland, Ohio); Wirth, Thomas H.; Hughes, Langston; Thomas H. Wirth Collection (Emory University. MARBL) (February 1, 2019). ["The Central High School monthly"](https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/101680226). Central High – via Hathi Trust. 18. **[^](#cite%5Fref-18 "Jump up")** ["Ronnick: Within CAMWS Territory: Helen M. Chesnutt (1880–1969), Black Latinist"](https://camws.org/meeting/2005/abstracts2005/ronnick.html). _Camws.org_. 19. **[^](#cite%5Fref-19 "Jump up")** _Langston Hughes Reads His Poetry_, with commentary, audiotape from [Caedmon Audio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caedmon%5FAudio "Caedmon Audio") 20. **[^](#cite%5Fref-20 "Jump up")** ["Langston Hughes, Writer, 65, Dead"](https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/01/04/22/specials/hughes-obit.html). _[The New York Times](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FNew%5FYork%5FTimes "The New York Times")_. May 23, 1967. 21. **[^](#cite%5Fref-21 "Jump up")** ["Langston Hughes | Scholastic"](https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/authors/langston-hughes/). _www.scholastic.com_. 22. **[^](#cite%5Fref-22 "Jump up")** ["Langston Hughes biography: African-American history: Crossing Boundaries: Kansas Humanities Council"](http://www.kansasheritage.org/crossingboundaries/page6e1.html). _www.kansasheritage.org_. 23. **[^](#cite%5Fref-FOOTNOTEHughes200154–56%5F23-0 "Jump up")** [Hughes 2001](#CITEREFHughes2001), pp. 54–56. 24. **[^](#cite%5Fref-Brooks%5F24-0 "Jump up")** [Brooks, Gwendolyn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwendolyn%5FBrooks "Gwendolyn Brooks") (October 12, 1986). ["Review of _The Darker Brother_"](https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/12/books/the-darker-brother.html). _[The New York Times](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FNew%5FYork%5FTimes "The New York Times")_. And the father, Hughes said, 'hated Negroes. I think he hated himself, too, for being a Negro. He disliked all of his family because they were Negroes.' James Hughes was tightfisted, uncharitable, cold. 25. **[^](#cite%5Fref-25 "Jump up")** Wallace, Maurice Orlando (2008). [_Langston Hughes: The Harlem Renaissance_](https://books.google.com/books?id=QEZ%5Fi3TvcjgC&dq=Langston+Hughes+columbia+spectator&pg=PA26). Marshall Cavendish. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0761425915](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0761425915 "Special:BookSources/978-0761425915"). 26. **[^](#cite%5Fref-26 "Jump up")** ["Write Columbia's History"](http://c250.columbia.edu/c250%5Fperspectives/write%5Fhistory/1341.html). _c250.columbia.edu_. 27. **[^](#cite%5Fref-27 "Jump up")** ["Open and Closed Doors at the University: Two Giants of the Harlem Renaissance | Columbia University and Slavery"](https://columbiaandslavery.columbia.edu/content/open-and-closed-doors-university-two-giants-harlem-renaissance). _columbiaandslavery.columbia.edu_. 28. **[^](#cite%5Fref-28 "Jump up")** Rampersad, vol. 1, 1986, p. 56. 29. **[^](#cite%5Fref-29 "Jump up")** "Poem" or "To F.S." first appeared in _The Crisis_ in May 1925 and was reprinted in _The Weary Blues_ and _The Dream Keeper_. Hughes never publicly identified "F.S.", but it is conjectured he was [Ferdinand Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand%5FSmith "Ferdinand Smith"), a merchant seaman whom the poet first met in New York in the early 1920s. Nine years older than Hughes, Smith influenced the poet to go to sea. Born in [Jamaica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaica "Jamaica") in 1893, Smith spent most of his life as a ship steward and political activist at sea—and later in New York as a resident of Harlem. Smith was deported in 1951 to Jamaica for alleged Communist activities and illegal alien status. Hughes corresponded with Smith up until the latter's death in 1961\. Berry, p. 347. 30. **[^](#cite%5Fref-30 "Jump up")** ["Langston Hughes"](https://www.biography.com/people/langston-hughes-9346313). _Biography.com_. 31. **[^](#cite%5Fref-31 "Jump up")** Leach, _Langston Hughes: A Biography_ (2004), pp. xvi, 153. 32. **[^](#cite%5Fref-32 "Jump up")** Rampersad, Vol. 1, pp. 86–87, 89–90. 33. **[^](#cite%5Fref-33 "Jump up")** ["History – Hugh Wooding Law School"](https://web.archive.org/web/20190302081457/http://www.hwls.edu.tt/history). _Hwls.edu.tt_. Archived from [the original](http://www.hwls.edu.tt/history) on March 2, 2019. 34. **[^](#cite%5Fref-34 "Jump up")** In 1926, Amy Spingarn, wife of [Joel Elias Spingarn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel%5FElias%5FSpingarn "Joel Elias Spingarn"), who was president of the [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National%5FAssociation%5Ffor%5Fthe%5FAdvancement%5Fof%5FColored%5FPeople "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People") (NAACP), served as patron for Hughes and provided the funds ($300) for him to attend Lincoln University. Rampersad, vol. 1, 1986, pp. 122–123. 35. **[^](#cite%5Fref-35 "Jump up")** In November 1927, [Charlotte Osgood Mason](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte%5FOsgood%5FMason "Charlotte Osgood Mason") ("Godmother" as she liked to be called), became Hughes's major patron. Rampersad. vol. 1, 1986, p. 156. 36. **[^](#cite%5Fref-36 "Jump up")** ["Mule Bone: Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston's Dream Deferred of an African-American Theatre of the Black Word."](http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-74410616.html), _[African American Review](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African%5FAmerican%5FReview "African American Review")_, March 22, 2001\. Retrieved March 7, 2008\. "In February 1930, Hurston headed north, settling in Westfield, New Jersey. Godmother Mason (Mrs. Rufus Osgood Mason, their white protector) had selected Westfield, safely removed from the distractions of New York City, as a suitable place for both Hurston and Hughes to work." 37. **[^](#cite%5Fref-37 "Jump up")** "J. L. Hughes Will Depart After Questioning as to Communism", _[The New York Times](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FNew%5FYork%5FTimes "The New York Times")_, July 25, 1933. 38. **[^](#cite%5Fref-FOOTNOTENero1997161,%5F192%5F38-0 "Jump up")** [Nero 1997](#CITEREFNero1997), pp. 161, 192. 39. **[^](#cite%5Fref-YaleSymposium%5F39-0 "Jump up")** Yale Symposium, _Was Langston Gay?_ commemorating the 100th birthday of Hughes in 2002. 40. **[^](#cite%5Fref-FOOTNOTESchwarz200368–88%5F40-0 "Jump up")** [Schwarz 2003](#CITEREFSchwarz2003), pp. 68–88. 41. **[^](#cite%5Fref-41 "Jump up")** "Cafe 3 A.M." was against gay bashing by police, and "Poem for F.S." was about his friend Ferdinand Smith ([Nero 1999](#CITEREFNero1999), p. 500). 42. **[^](#cite%5Fref-42 "Jump up")** [Jean Blackwell Hutson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean%5FBlackwell%5FHutson "Jean Blackwell Hutson"), former chief of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, said: "He was always eluding marriage. He said marriage and career didn't work. ... It wasn't until his later years that I became convinced he was homosexual." Hutson & Nelson, _Essence_, February 1992, p. 96. 43. **[^](#cite%5Fref-43 "Jump up")** [McClatchy, J. D.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.%5FD.%5FMcClatchy "J. D. McClatchy") (2002). _Langston Hughes: Voice of the Poet_. New York: Random House Audio. p. 12\. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0553714913](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0553714913 "Special:BookSources/978-0553714913"). Though there were infrequent and half-hearted affairs with women, most people considered Hughes asexual, insistent on a skittish, carefree 'innocence.' In fact, he was a closeted homosexual. 44. **[^](#cite%5Fref-Aldrich%5F44-0 "Jump up")** Aldrich (2001), p. 200. 45. **[^](#cite%5Fref-45 "Jump up")** Referring to men of African descent, Rampersad writes: "... Hughes found some young men, especially dark-skinned men, appealing and sexually fascinating. (Both in his various artistic representations, in fiction especially, and in his life, he appears to have found young white men of little sexual appeal.) Virile young men of very dark complexion fascinated him." Rampersad, vol. 2, 1988, p. 336. 46. **[^](#cite%5Fref-46 "Jump up")** "His fatalism was well placed. Under such pressure, Hughes's sexual desire, such as it was, became not so much sublimated as vaporized. He governed his sexual desires to an extent rare in a normal adult male; whether his appetite was normal and adult is impossible to say. He understood, however, that Cullen and Locke offered him nothing he wanted, or nothing that promised much for him or his poetry. If certain of his responses to Locke seemed like teasing (a habit Hughes would never quite lose with women, or, perhaps, men) they were not therefore necessarily signs of sexual desire; more likely, they showed the lack of it. Nor should one infer quickly that Hughes was held back by a greater fear of public exposure as a homosexual than his friends had; of the three men, he was the only one ready, indeed eager, to be perceived as disreputable." "Rampersad, _The Life of Langston Hughes_, Vol. I, p. 69. 47. **[^](#cite%5Fref-47 "Jump up")** Sandra West states: Hughes's "apparent love for black men as evidenced through a series of unpublished poems he wrote to a black male lover named 'Beauty'." West, 2003, p. 162. 48. **[^](#cite%5Fref-48 "Jump up")** ["The Negro Speaks of Rivers"](http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15722) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20100726105730/http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15722) July 26, 2010, at the [Wayback Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback%5FMachine "Wayback Machine"). Audio file, Hughes reading. Poem information from Poets.org. 49. **[^](#cite%5Fref-49 "Jump up")** "The Negro Speaks of Rivers": first published in _The Crisis_ (June 1921), p. 17\. Included in _The New Negro_ (1925), _The Weary Blues_, _Langston Hughes Reader_, and _Selected Poems_. The poem is dedicated to W. E. B. Du Bois in _The Weary Blues_, but it is printed without dedication in later versions. – Rampersad & Roessel (2002). In _The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes_, pp. 23, 620. 50. **[^](#cite%5Fref-50 "Jump up")** Rampersad & Roessel (2002), _The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes_, pp. 23, 620. 51. **[^](#cite%5Fref-51 "Jump up")** Hoelscher, Stephen (2019). ["A Lost Work by Langston Hughes"](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/lost-work-langston-hughes-180972499/). _Smithsonian_. 52. **[^](#cite%5Fref-52 "Jump up")** Hughes "disdained the rigid class and color differences the 'best people' drew between themselves and Afro-Americans of darker complexion, of smaller means and lesser formal education." – Berry, 1983 & 1992, p. 60. 53. **[^](#cite%5Fref-53 "Jump up")** "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" (June 1926), _[The Nation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FNation "The Nation")_. 54. **[^](#cite%5Fref-54 "Jump up")** Rampersad, 1988, vol. 2, p. 418. 55. **[^](#cite%5Fref-55 "Jump up")** West, 2003, p. 162. 56. **[^](#cite%5Fref-56 "Jump up")** "My People" First published as "Poem" in _The Crisis_ (October 1923), p. 162, and _The Weary Blues_ (1926). The title poem "My People" was collected in _The Dream Keeper_ (1932) and the _Selected Poems of Langston Hughes_ (1959). Rampersad & Roessel (2002), _The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes_, pp. 36, 623. 57. ^ [Jump up to: _**a**_](#cite%5Fref-Rampersadvol%5F57-0) [_**b**_](#cite%5Fref-Rampersadvol%5F57-1) Rampersad. vol. 2, 1988, p. 297. 58. **[^](#cite%5Fref-58 "Jump up")** Rampersad. vol. 1, 1986, p. 91. 59. **[^](#cite%5Fref-59 "Jump up")** [Mercer Cook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercer%5FCook "Mercer Cook"), African-American scholar of French culture wrote: "His (Langston Hughes) work had a lot to do with the famous concept of _Négritude_, of black soul and feeling, that they were beginning to develop." Rampersad, vol. 1, 1986, p. 343. 60. **[^](#cite%5Fref-60 "Jump up")** Rampersad. vol. 1, 1986, p. 343. 61. **[^](#cite%5Fref-61 "Jump up")** Charlotte Mason generously supported Hughes for two years. She supervised his writing his first novel, _Not Without Laughter_ (1930). Her patronage of Hughes ended about the time the novel appeared. Rampersad. "Langston Hughes", in _The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature_, 2001, p. 207. 62. ^ [Jump up to: _**a**_](#cite%5Fref-Tanenhaus%5F1997%5F62-0) [_**b**_](#cite%5Fref-Tanenhaus%5F1997%5F62-1) Tanenhaus, Sam (1997). [_Whittaker Chambers: A Biography_](https://books.google.com/books?id=vzkFpiXCF8wC&pg=PP1). Random House. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0307789266 "Special:BookSources/978-0307789266"). 63. **[^](#cite%5Fref-63 "Jump up")** millersvillearchives [Golden Stair Press](https://millersvillearchives.com/exhibits/show/harlem-renaissance--1917-1935/langston-hughes-and-prentiss-t) 64. **[^](#cite%5Fref-loftis%5F64-0 "Jump up")** Anne Loftis (1998), _Witnesses to the Struggle_, p. 46, University of Nevada Press, [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0874173055](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0874173055 "Special:BookSources/978-0874173055"). 65. **[^](#cite%5Fref-Witness%5F65-0 "Jump up")** Chambers, Whittaker (1952). _Witness_. New York: Random House. pp. 44–45 (includes description of Lieber), 203, 266fn, 355, 365–366, 376–377, 377fn, 388, 394, 397, 401, 408, 410\. [LCCN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCCN%5F%28identifier%29 "LCCN (identifier)") [52005149](https://lccn.loc.gov/52005149). 66. ^ [Jump up to: _**a**_](#cite%5Fref-Rampersad7%5F66-0) [_**b**_](#cite%5Fref-Rampersad7%5F66-1) [_**c**_](#cite%5Fref-Rampersad7%5F66-2) Rampersad, Arnold (2001). [_The Life of Langston Hughes_](https://books.google.com/books?id=qclO9rdN1XIC&q=Carmel). Oxford University Press, USA. p. 7\. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0-19-988227-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-19-988227-4 "Special:BookSources/978-0-19-988227-4"). 67. **[^](#cite%5Fref-67 "Jump up")** Hughes, Langston; Husband, Dalla. ["Madrid 1937"](https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Madrid-1937-HUSBAND-Langston-HUGHES-Paris/30894030930/bd). _www.abebooks.com_. 68. ^ [Jump up to: _**a**_](#cite%5Fref-CLHF%5F68-0) [_**b**_](#cite%5Fref-CLHF%5F68-1) ["Langston Hughes"](https://web.archive.org/web/20130908192301/http://chicagoliteraryhof.org/PersonDetail.aspx?PersonID=78). _Chicago Literary Hall of Fame_. Chicago Writers Association. Archived from [the original](http://www.chicagoliteraryhof.org/PersonDetail.aspx?PersonID=78) on September 8, 2013. 69. **[^](#cite%5Fref-69 "Jump up")** [_Word Warrior: Richard Durham, Radio & Freedom_](https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-7193/) – video presentation from the [Library of Congress](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library%5Fof%5FCongress "Library of Congress") featuring author Sonja D. Williams 70. **[^](#cite%5Fref-70 "Jump up")** "[Shakespeare of Harlem](https://archive.org/details/DestinationFreedom/DF%5F48-09-26%5Fep014-Shakespeare%5Fof%5FHarlem.mp3)", a presentation from _[Destination Freedom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destination%5FFreedom "Destination Freedom")_ 71. **[^](#cite%5Fref-71 "Jump up")** [Creekmore, Hubert](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert%5FCreekmore "Hubert Creekmore") (January 30, 1949). ["Two Rewarding Volumes of Verse; One-way Ticket. By Langston Hughes. Illustrated by Jacob Lawrence. 136 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. The Poetry of the Negro: 1746–1949\. Edited by Arna Bontemps and Langston Hughes. 429 pp. New York: Doubleday & Co"](https://www.nytimes.com/1949/01/30/archives/two-rewarding-volumes-of-verse-oneway-ticket-by-langston-hughes.html). _[The New York Times](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FNew%5FYork%5FTimes "The New York Times")_. p. 19. 72. **[^](#cite%5Fref-72 "Jump up")** Rampersad, 1988, vol. 2, p. 207. 73. **[^](#cite%5Fref-73 "Jump up")** Langston's misgivings about the new black writing were because of its emphasis on black criminality and frequent use of profanity. – Rampersad, vol. 2, p. 207. 74. **[^](#cite%5Fref-74 "Jump up")** Hughes said: "There are millions of blacks who never murder anyone, or rape or get raped or want to rape, who never lust after white bodies, or cringe before white stupidity, or Uncle Tom, or go crazy with race, or off-balance with frustration." – Rampersad, vol. 2, p. 119. 75. **[^](#cite%5Fref-75 "Jump up")** Langston eagerly looked to the day when the gifted young writers of his race would go beyond the clamor of civil rights and integration and take a genuine pride in being black ... he found this latter quality starkly absent in even the best of them. – Rampersad, vol. 2, p. 310. 76. **[^](#cite%5Fref-76 "Jump up")** "As for whites in general, Hughes did not like them ... He felt he had been exploited and humiliated by them." – Rampersad, 1988, vol. 2, p. 338. 77. **[^](#cite%5Fref-77 "Jump up")** Hughes's advice on how to deal with racists was, "'Always be polite to them ... be over-polite. Kill them with kindness.' But, he insisted on recognizing that all whites are not racist, and definitely enjoyed the company of those who sought him out in friendship and with respect." – Rampersad, 1988, vol. 2, p. 368. 78. **[^](#cite%5Fref-Rampersad%5F78-0 "Jump up")** Rampersad, 1988, vol. 2, p. 409. 79. **[^](#cite%5Fref-79 "Jump up")** Fountain, James (June 2009). "The notion of crusade in British and American literary responses to the Spanish Civil War". _Journal of Transatlantic Studies_. **7** (2): 133–147\. [doi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi%5F%28identifier%29 "Doi (identifier)"):[10.1080/14794010902868298](https://doi.org/10.1080%2F14794010902868298). [S2CID](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S2CID%5F%28identifier%29 "S2CID (identifier)") [145749786](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:145749786). 80. **[^](#cite%5Fref-80 "Jump up")** The end of "A New Song" was substantially changed when it was included in _A New Song_ (New York: International Workers Order, 1938). 81. **[^](#cite%5Fref-81 "Jump up")** Scammell, Michael (June 29, 1989). ["Langston Hughes in the USSR"](https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1989/06/29/langston-hughes-in-the-ussr/). _New York Review of Books_. **36** (11). [ISSN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISSN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISSN (identifier)") [0028-7504](https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0028-7504). 82. **[^](#cite%5Fref-82 "Jump up")** Tanenhaus, Sam (1997). [_Whittaker Chambers: A Biography_](https://books.google.com/books?id=vzkFpiXCF8wC&pg=PP1). Random House. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0307789266 "Special:BookSources/978-0307789266"). [Malcolm Cowley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm%5FCowley "Malcolm Cowley"), [Floyd Dell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd%5FDell "Floyd Dell"), and Chambers were also involved in this intended film. 83. **[^](#cite%5Fref-83 "Jump up")** Arthur Koestler, "The Invisible Writing", Ch. 10. 84. **[^](#cite%5Fref-84 "Jump up")** Lai-Henderson, Selina (2020). ["Color around the Globe: Langston Hughes and Black Internationalism in China"](https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fmelus%2Fmlaa016). _MELUS_. **45** (2): 88–107\. [doi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi%5F%28identifier%29 "Doi (identifier)"):[10.1093/melus/mlaa016](https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fmelus%2Fmlaa016). 85. **[^](#cite%5Fref-85 "Jump up")** Kiuchi, Toru (2008). ["The Critical Response in Japan to Langston Hughes"](https://www.cit.nihon-u.ac.jp/laboratorydata/kenkyu/publication/journal%5Fb/b41.1.pdf) (PDF). _Nihon daigaku seisan kōgakubu kenkyū hōkoku B_ 日本大学生産工学部研究報告B. **41**: 1–14. 86. **[^](#cite%5Fref-86 "Jump up")** Huh, Jang Wook (2021). ["'Our Temples for Tomorrow': Langston Hughes and the Making of a Democratic Korea"](https://doi.org/10.5325%2Flanghughrevi.27.2.0115). _The Langston Hughes Review_. **27** (2): 115–136\. [doi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi%5F%28identifier%29 "Doi (identifier)"):[10.5325/langhughrevi.27.2.0115](https://doi.org/10.5325%2Flanghughrevi.27.2.0115). 87. ^ [Jump up to: _**a**_](#cite%5Fref-juan%5F87-0) [_**b**_](#cite%5Fref-juan%5F87-1) [_**c**_](#cite%5Fref-juan%5F87-2) Juan Ignacio Guijarro González (September 2021). [""I looked upon the Nile"—and the Ebro: Reconstructing the History of Langston Hughes Translations in Spain (1930–1975)"](https://doi.org/10.5325/langhughrevi.27.2.0137). _The Langston Hughes Review_. **27** (2): 144–145\. [doi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi%5F%28identifier%29 "Doi (identifier)"):[10.5325/langhughrevi.27.2.0137](https://doi.org/10.5325%2Flanghughrevi.27.2.0137). [S2CID](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S2CID%5F%28identifier%29 "S2CID (identifier)") [240529722](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:240529722). 88. **[^](#cite%5Fref-88 "Jump up")** ["Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives"](http://www.alba-valb.org/volunteers/james-bernard-rucker). _Alba-valb.org_. 89. **[^](#cite%5Fref-FOOTNOTEDeSantis20019%5F89-0 "Jump up")** [DeSantis 2001](#CITEREFDeSantis2001), p. 9. 90. **[^](#cite%5Fref-90 "Jump up")** Rampersad, Arnold (2002). [_The Life of Langston Hughes: Volume II: 1941–1967, I Dream a World_](https://books.google.com/books?id=qclO9rdN1XIC&pg=PA85). Oxford University Press. p. 85\. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0199882274](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0199882274 "Special:BookSources/978-0199882274"). 91. **[^](#cite%5Fref-91 "Jump up")** Winston, Kimberly (February 22, 2012). ["Blacks say atheists were unseen civil rights heroes"](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/blacks-say-atheists-were-unseen-civil-rights-heroes/2012/02/22/gIQAfLklTR%5Fstory.html). _[The Washington Post](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FWashington%5FPost "The Washington Post")_. Religion News Service. 92. **[^](#cite%5Fref-92 "Jump up")** _Executive Sessions of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations_, Volume 2, Volume 107, Issue 84 of S. prt, Beth Bolling, [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0160513626](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0160513626 "Special:BookSources/978-0160513626"). Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Publisher: U.S. GPO. Original from the University of Michigan [p. 988.](http://www.k-state.edu/english/nelp/childlit/radical/McCarthy%5FKay%5FHughes.html) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20150310102134/http://www.k-state.edu/english/nelp/childlit/radical/McCarthy%5FKay%5FHughes.html) March 10, 2015, at the [Wayback Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback%5FMachine "Wayback Machine") 93. ^ [Jump up to: _**a**_](#cite%5Fref-Leach%5F93-0) [_**b**_](#cite%5Fref-Leach%5F93-1) Leach, _Langston Hughes: A Biography_ (2004), pp. 118–119. 94. **[^](#cite%5Fref-94 "Jump up")** Sharf, James C. (1981). _Testimony of Richard T. Seymour, before the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Senate Committee on the Judiciary_. [doi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi%5F%28identifier%29 "Doi (identifier)"):[10.1037/e578982009-004](https://doi.org/10.1037%2Fe578982009-004).\[_[full citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing%5Fsources#What%5Finformation%5Fto%5Finclude "Wikipedia:Citing sources")_\] 95. **[^](#cite%5Fref-95 "Jump up")** Wilson, Scott (2016). _Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons_. Jefferson, North Carolina: [McFarland & Company](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McFarland%5F%26%5FCompany "McFarland & Company"). p. 359\. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0786479924](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0786479924 "Special:BookSources/978-0786479924"). 96. **[^](#cite%5Fref-96 "Jump up")** Whitaker, Charles, "Langston Hughes: 100th birthday celebration of the poet of Black America", _[Ebony](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebony%5Fmagazine "Ebony magazine")_, April 2002. 97. **[^](#cite%5Fref-97 "Jump up")** ["Song"](https://books.google.com/books?id=7JDHPmklV-IC&pg=PA65). _The Dream Keeper and Other Poems_. The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, vol. 11\. University of Missouri Press. 2001\. p. 65\. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780826214980 "Special:BookSources/9780826214980"). 98. **[^](#cite%5Fref-98 "Jump up")** ["Lovely, dark, and lonely one"](https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get%5Ftext.html?TextId=42592) by Langston Hughes (text), [Harry Burleigh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry%5FBurleigh "Harry Burleigh") (music), lieder.net 99. **[^](#cite%5Fref-99 "Jump up")** Cohen, Aaron I. (1987). [_International Encyclopedia of Women Composers_](https://books.google.com/books?id=5VsYAAAAIAAJ&q=strantz+louise). Books & Music. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [978-0961748524](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0961748524 "Special:BookSources/978-0961748524"). 100. **[^](#cite%5Fref-100 "Jump up")** Donald V. Calamia, ["Review: 'Hannibal of the Alps'"](http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=14526). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20151122221809/http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=14526) November 22, 2015, at the [Wayback Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback%5FMachine "Wayback Machine"). Pride Source, from _[Between The Lines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Between%5Fthe%5FLines%5F%28newspaper%29 "Between the Lines (newspaper)")_, June 9, 2005. 101. **[^](#cite%5Fref-101 "Jump up")** ["We are African Americans for Humanism"](http://www.aahumanism.net/we%5Fare%5Faah). _African Americans for Humanism_. 102. **[^](#cite%5Fref-102 "Jump up")** Jeff Lunden, ["'Ask Your Mama': A Music And Poetry Premiere"](https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101838506), NPR. 103. **[^](#cite%5Fref-103 "Jump up")** ["The Langston Hughes Project"](http://www.ronmccurdy.com/about%5Fhudges%5Fproject.htm). _Ronmccurdy.com_. November 24, 2021. 104. **[^](#cite%5Fref-104 "Jump up")** ["Ronald C. McCurdy, Ph.D."](http://www.ronmccurdy.com/ron%5Fbiography.htm) Biography. 105. **[^](#cite%5Fref-105 "Jump up")** ["Ice-T and Ron McCurdy – the Langston Hughes Project"](http://www.barbican.org.uk/news/artformnews/music/ice-t-and-ron-mccurdy-%E2%80%93-the-lang). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20151122232827/http://www.barbican.org.uk/news/artformnews/music/ice-t-and-ron-mccurdy-%E2%80%93-the-lang) November 22, 2015, at the [Wayback Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback%5FMachine "Wayback Machine"), Artform press releases. 106. **[^](#cite%5Fref-106 "Jump up")** ["The Langston Hughes Project, Thursday 24 September 2015"](https://serious.org.uk/news/2015/the-langston-hughes-project) [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20200803115757/https://serious.org.uk/news/2015/the-langston-hughes-project) August 3, 2020, at the [Wayback Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback%5FMachine "Wayback Machine"), Serious. Article by [Margaret Busby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret%5FBusby "Margaret Busby"), first published in the Barbican November 2015 Guide. 107. **[^](#cite%5Fref-107 "Jump up")** ["Fiction Book Review: Harlem Mosaics"](https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4792-1302-3). _Publishers Weekly_. April 28, 2018. 108. **[^](#cite%5Fref-108 "Jump up")** Maddie Crum (September 22, 2016). ["Powerful Poem about Race Gets a Full Page in _The New York Times_"](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/langston-hughes-poem-new-york-times%5Fus%5F57e3d857e4b08d73b82fbc0f). _[Huffington Post](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huffington%5FPost "Huffington Post")_. 109. **[^](#cite%5Fref-109 "Jump up")** ["Langston Hughes Memorial Library"](https://web.archive.org/web/20131113222619/http://www.lincoln.edu/library/abouthughes.html). Lincoln University. Archived from [the original](http://www.lincoln.edu/library/abouthughes.html) on November 13, 2013. 110. **[^](#cite%5Fref-Perspective-on-History%5F110-0 "Jump up")** Nunes, Zita Cristina (November 20, 2018). ["Cataloging Black Knowledge: How Dorothy Porter Assembled and Organized a Premier Africana Research Collection"](https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/december-2018/cataloging-black-knowledge-how-dorothy-porter-assembled-and-organized-a-premier-africana-research-collection). _Perspectives on History_. 111. **[^](#cite%5Fref-111 "Jump up")** ["Langston Hughes, Poet"](https://www.newspapers.com/image/380354643/). _[Los Angeles Times](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los%5FAngeles%5FTimes "Los Angeles Times")_. September 26, 1926\. p. 66 – via [newspapers.com](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspapers.com "Newspapers.com"). The Witter Bynner undergraduate poetry prize for 1926 was awarded to Langston Hughes, Lincoln University, whom Carl Van Vechten ranks with among the best of the younger American poets. 112. **[^](#cite%5Fref-112 "Jump up")** ["Langston Hughes – Poet"](https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A32779164). h2g2: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. April 14, 2008. 113. **[^](#cite%5Fref-113 "Jump up")** ["Medallion Recipients"](https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/lhf/medallion-recipients). _The City College of New YOrk_. July 4, 2015. 114. **[^](#cite%5Fref-114 "Jump up")** Jen Carlson (June 18, 2007).["Langston Hughes Lives On In Harlem"](http://gothamist.com/2007/06/18/langston%5Fhughes.php), [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20080202082610/http://gothamist.com/2007/06/18/langston%5Fhughes.php) February 2, 2008, at the [Wayback Machine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wayback%5FMachine "Wayback Machine"), [Gothamist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothamist "Gothamist"). Retrieved November 22, 2015. 115. **[^](#cite%5Fref-nris%5F115-0 "Jump up")** ["National Register Information System"](https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP). _[National Register of Historic Places](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National%5FRegister%5Fof%5FHistoric%5FPlaces "National Register of Historic Places")_. [National Park Service](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National%5FPark%5FService "National Park Service"). March 13, 2009. 116. **[^](#cite%5Fref-116 "Jump up")** Asante, Molefi Kete (2002). _100 Greatest African Americans: A Biographical Encyclopedia_. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [1573929638](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1573929638 "Special:BookSources/1573929638")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B11573929638 "Call +1 1573929638 via Google Voice"). 117. **[^](#cite%5Fref-117 "Jump up")** ["Langston Hughes"](https://chicagoliteraryhof.org/inductees/profile/langston-hughes). _Chicago Literary Hall of Fame_. 2012. 118. **[^](#cite%5Fref-118 "Jump up")** ["Langston Hughes' 113th Birthday"](https://www.google.com/doodles/langston-hughes-113th-birthday). _Google.com_. ### General and cited references * Aldrich, Robert (2001). _Who's Who in Gay & Lesbian History_. Routledge. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [041522974X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/041522974X "Special:BookSources/041522974X"). * Bernard, Emily (2001). _Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, 1925–1964_. Knopf. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [0679451137](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0679451137 "Special:BookSources/0679451137")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B10679451137 "Call +1 0679451137 via Google Voice"). * Berry, Faith (1992) \[1983\]. Chapter 10: "On the Cross of the South" and chapter 13: "Zero Hour". [_Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond Harlem_](https://archive.org/details/langstonhughesbe0000berr/mode/2up). New York: Citadel Press, p. [150](https://archive.org/details/langstonhughesbe0000berr/page/150/mode/2up); and [pp. 185–186](https://archive.org/details/langstonhughesbe0000berr/page/184/mode/2up). [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [0517147696](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0517147696 "Special:BookSources/0517147696")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B10517147696 "Call +1 0517147696 via Google Voice"). [OCLC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCLC%5F%28identifier%29 "OCLC (identifier)") [489620236](https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/489620236). * Chenrow, Fred; Chenrow, Carol (1973). _Reading Exercises in Black History_. Volume 1\. Elizabethtown, PA: The Continental Press, Inc. p. 36\. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [0845421077](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0845421077 "Special:BookSources/0845421077")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B10845421077 "Call +1 0845421077 via Google Voice"). * DeSantis, Christopher C. (2001). Introduction. _Fight for Freedom and Other Writings on Civil Rights_. By Hughes, Langston. The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, vol. 10\. University of Missouri Press. p. 9\. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0826213715 "Special:BookSources/0826213715")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B10826213715 "Call +1 0826213715 via Google Voice"). * Hughes, Langston (2001) \[1940\]. [_The Big Sea_](https://books.google.com/books?id=SsgPcfpjhBcC). The Collected Works of Langston Hughes, vol. 13\. University of Missouri Press. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780826214102 "Special:BookSources/9780826214102"). * Hutson, Jean Blackwell; & [Jill Nelson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jill%5FNelson "Jill Nelson") (February 1992). "Remembering Langston". _[Essence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essence%5Fmagazine "Essence magazine")_. p. 96. * Joyce, Joyce A. (2004). "A Historical Guide to Langston Hughes". In Steven C. Tracy (ed.). _Hughes and Twentieth-Century Genderracial Issues_, Oxford University Press, p. 136\. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [0195144341](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0195144341 "Special:BookSources/0195144341")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B10195144341 "Call +1 0195144341 via Google Voice"). * Nero, Charles I. (1997). "Re/Membering Langston: Homphobic Textuality and Arnold Rampersad's Life of Langston Hughes". In [Martin Duberman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin%5FDuberman "Martin Duberman") (ed.). _Queer Representations: Reading Lives, Reading Cultures_. New York University Press. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0814718841 "Special:BookSources/0814718841")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B10814718841 "Call +1 0814718841 via Google Voice"). * Nero, Charles I. (1999). "Free Speech or Hate Speech: Pornography and its Means of Production". In Larry P. Gross; James D. Woods (eds.). _Columbia Reader on Lesbians and Gay Men in Media, Society, and Politics_. Columbia University Press. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0231104472 "Special:BookSources/0231104472")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B10231104472 "Call +1 0231104472 via Google Voice"). * Nichols, Charles H. (1980). _Arna Bontempts-Langston Hughes Letters, 1925–1967_. Dodd, Mead & Company. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [0396076874](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0396076874 "Special:BookSources/0396076874")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B10396076874 "Call +1 0396076874 via Google Voice"). * [Ostrom, Hans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans%5FOstrom "Hans Ostrom") (1993). _Langston Hughes: A Study of the Short Fiction_. New York: Twayne. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [0805783431](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0805783431 "Special:BookSources/0805783431")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B10805783431 "Call +1 0805783431 via Google Voice") * Ostrom, Hans (2002). _A Langston Hughes Encyclopedia_, Westport: Greenwood Press. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [0313303924](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0313303924 "Special:BookSources/0313303924")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B10313303924 "Call +1 0313303924 via Google Voice"). * [Rampersad, Arnold](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold%5FRampersad "Arnold Rampersad") (1986). _The Life of Langston Hughes, Volume 1: I, Too, Sing America_. Oxford University Press. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [0195146425](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0195146425 "Special:BookSources/0195146425")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B10195146425 "Call +1 0195146425 via Google Voice") * Rampersad, Arnold (1988). _The Life of Langston Hughes, Volume 2: I Dream a World_. Oxford University Press. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [0195146433](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0195146433 "Special:BookSources/0195146433")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B10195146433 "Call +1 0195146433 via Google Voice"). * Schwarz, Christa A. B. (2003). "Langston Hughes: A True 'People's Poet'". _Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance_. Indiana University Press. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [0253216079](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0253216079 "Special:BookSources/0253216079")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B10253216079 "Call +1 0253216079 via Google Voice"). * West, Sandra L. (2003). "Langston Hughes". In Aberjhani & Sandra West (eds.). _Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance_. Checkmark Press. p. 162\. [ISBN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN%5F%28identifier%29 "ISBN (identifier)") [0816045402](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0816045402 "Special:BookSources/0816045402")[](http://voice.google.com/calls?a=nc,%2B10816045402 "Call +1 0816045402 via Google Voice").