"I didn't know the upper class Negroes well enough to write much
about them. I knew only the people I had grown up with, and they weren't the
people whose shoes were always shined, who had been to Harvard, or who had heard
of Bach. But they seemed to me good people, too."
Biography
- Born on February 1, 1902 in Joplin, MO. His father worked for a mining company, James Nathaniel Hughes, and his mother, Carrie Mercer Langston.
- His parents had a divorce even before he was born, and his father abandoned the family. Langston was forced to live with his grandmother Mary Langston.
- From an early age Langston loved english. He wrote short stories and poems in his free time, writing about the people around him.
- After graduation of high school, Langston turned to his father for financial support for becoming a poet. His father laughed at the idea of a black man becoming a poet and refused to help unless he studied engeneering.
- He gave into his father deal, and studied engeneering...until spring. He got bored of his classes and dropped out. It was then that Langston decided to join the Harlem Renaissance, a African American group that suppported the intellectual and arts.
- When he moved to Washington D.C., his intelect never took off and he started going down to low menial jobs for some money. It was at that point that many African American artists of all kinds, musicians, writers, poets, started publishing work. Working as a busboy, Langston got his inspiration, and shared his poetry to an audience in the resturaunt he worked at, and he became a huge celebrity. This is the point where his carrer as a young African American poet launched.
- From payments of many magazines, prize money, and some financial support from a wealthy family that was a part of many African American Groups, Langston got the money to attend Lincoln College for English, an all-black school.
- As America started plunging into new radical reforms and Depression, Langston observed the world around him, and his writing started becoming more about what was going on around him. He wrote poems about the radical reforms, which made it difficult to sell them for money.
-He soon became a famous name, and started writing short stories, poems, and more about his race.
-Langston Hughes passed away on May 22, 1967
- His parents had a divorce even before he was born, and his father abandoned the family. Langston was forced to live with his grandmother Mary Langston.
- From an early age Langston loved english. He wrote short stories and poems in his free time, writing about the people around him.
- After graduation of high school, Langston turned to his father for financial support for becoming a poet. His father laughed at the idea of a black man becoming a poet and refused to help unless he studied engeneering.
- He gave into his father deal, and studied engeneering...until spring. He got bored of his classes and dropped out. It was then that Langston decided to join the Harlem Renaissance, a African American group that suppported the intellectual and arts.
- When he moved to Washington D.C., his intelect never took off and he started going down to low menial jobs for some money. It was at that point that many African American artists of all kinds, musicians, writers, poets, started publishing work. Working as a busboy, Langston got his inspiration, and shared his poetry to an audience in the resturaunt he worked at, and he became a huge celebrity. This is the point where his carrer as a young African American poet launched.
- From payments of many magazines, prize money, and some financial support from a wealthy family that was a part of many African American Groups, Langston got the money to attend Lincoln College for English, an all-black school.
- As America started plunging into new radical reforms and Depression, Langston observed the world around him, and his writing started becoming more about what was going on around him. He wrote poems about the radical reforms, which made it difficult to sell them for money.
-He soon became a famous name, and started writing short stories, poems, and more about his race.
-Langston Hughes passed away on May 22, 1967