His Legacy
Dreaming in America, Part VI

 Langston Hughes was a prolific writer. In the forty-odd years between the publication of his first book  and his death in 1967, he devoted his life to writing and lecturing. He wrote sixteen books of poems, two novels, three collections of short stories, four volumes of "editorial" and "documentary" fiction, twenty plays, children's poetry, musicals and operas, three autobiographies, a dozen radio and television scripts and dozens of magazine articles. In addition, he edited seven anthologies. He traveled around the world and testified before the Senate. Above all, he was never afraid or ashamed of what he was; a Negro.

On May 22, 1967, Langston Hughes died of cancer.  The following day, the New York Times published his obituary. His body was cremated and the remains interred beneath the commemoratively designed "I've Known Rivers" tile floor in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. Visitors to this noted research center may see this floor, pay respects to his remains, and remember the man.