Langston Hughes

And the Harlem Renaissance

Langston Hughes

 Most popular and

versatile writer of the
Harlem Renaissance
 Wanted to capture
the traditions of Black
culture in written form
 1902-1967
Early Life
 Raised by
grandmother in family
with long abolitionist
tradition
 Mother—sympathetic
to writing
 Father—businessman
 First published in
anthologies
Among First Poems Published
 ―The Negro Speaks of Rivers‖
 Published in The Crisis, the publication of
the NAACP in 1921
―The Negro Speaks of Rivers‖
 I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and
older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

―The Negro Speaks of 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.
―The Negro Speaks of Rivers‖

I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Writing Career 1920s
 Early works were
poetry and essays
 Left Columbia U. &
traveled the world in
the early 1920s
 Returned to college
 Accepted help from a
patron
 Visited the South
Career and Interests 1930s & 40s
 Drawn to American
Communist Party
 Visited Soviet Union
 Reported in Spanish
Civil War
 Created prose
monologues on race
Later Years
 First Book of Negroes 
1952
 The First Book of
Jazz 1955
 On FBI Security List
until 1959
 Traveled
internationally –1960s
 (Stamp issued 2-1-02 centennial)