|
Biography
 James Mercer Langston Hughes called a number of places home during his
childhood. He did not have the benefit of a stable family life to provide
a sense of emotional security.
His mother was frequently absent, and his father (whom he hated), a man
with undisguised disdain for most other blacks, moved to Mexico to escape
American oppression. It was left to the boy’s poor but self-reliant
grandmother to raise him, and thus he spent many of his formative years in
Lawrence, Kansas. After her death, he lived with his mother in several
cities before they settled in Cleveland. "My theory is," he later wrote,
"children should be born without parents—if born they must be."
Following graduation from high school, Hughes spent a year in
Mexico, a year at Columbia University, and then traveled to Africa and
Europe. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania
where he was a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.
Hughes began writing
poetry in the eighth grade, and was selected as Class Poet. His father
didn't think he would be able to make a living at writing, and encouraged
him to pursue a more practical career. He paid his son's tuition to
Columbia University on the grounds he study engineering. After a short
time, Langston dropped out of the program with a B+ average; all the while
he continued writing poetry.
In 1923, Hughes traveled abroad on a freighter to Africa, and later to
Italy and France, Russia and Spain. One of his favorite pastimes whether
abroad or in Washington, D.C. or Harlem, New York was sitting in the clubs
listening to blues, jazz and writing poetry. Through these experiences a
new rhythm emerged in his writing, and a series of poems such as "The
Weary Blues" were penned. He returned to Harlem, in 1924, the period known
as the Harlem Renaissance. During this period, his work was frequently
published and his writing flourished. In 1925 he moved to Washington, D.C.
He said, "I tried to write poems like the songs they
sang on Seventh Street...(these songs) had the pulse beat of the people
who keep on going." He returned to his beloved Harlem in 1926.
Langston Hughes died on May 22, 1967.
|
