Langston Hughes, American Poet and Activist
Pastel drawing of Hughes by Weinold Reiss, circa 1925. James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 - May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. After travels to Mexico, west Africa, Paris and England he returned to the US and settled in Washington There he met the poet Vachel Lindsay who publicized his discovery of a new black poet. By this time, Hughes's earlier work had been published in magazines and was about to be collected into his first book of poetry. He earned a degree from Lincoln University in 1929, and returned to New York. Except for travels to the Soviet Union and parts of the Caribbean, he lived in Harlem for the remainder of his life, and is best remembered as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. His main concern was the uplift of his people, whose strengths, resiliency, courage, and humor he wanted to record as part of the general American experience. Permeating his work is pride in the African-American identity and its diverse culture. He died in 1967 from complications after abdominal surgery, related to prostate cancer, at the age of 65.
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