Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri.  His parents were James Hughes and Carrie Langston Hughes. Langston’s mother was a teacher and his father a lawyer and wealthy landowner. Langston Hughes was an African-American male whose origins like most African-Americans can be traced back to West Africa. His father later moved to Mexico because he was unhappy with the pervasive racism that had become inextricably part of society and effectively abandoned his family.

Carl Van Vechten [Public domain] https://en.wikipedia.org

During his childhood, Langston Hughes was sent to live with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas as his mother worked quite at a distance in order to make ends meet. His mother was their only source of financial support.  Langston’s grandmother was fabled to be a great storyteller and throughout his life, she told Langston many stories that made him feel pride in his African-American culture and African origins. He felt so much pride that he knew in the depths of his soul he was equal to every other human being and just as important.  His grandmother’s passing prompted Langston to go live with his mother in Lincoln. By the time he rejoined his mother, she had re-married and despite being once again reunited with his mother he was often alone because she had to work.

Even though Langston’s childhood was filled with hardships, misfortunes and lots of change, he never allowed that to slow him down and instead used those experiences to inspire his poems and other literary works. Langston Hughes enjoyed and studied the poems of Paul Lawrence Dunbar and Carl Sandburg when he was in high-school. During that period, he began writing as a high school student and wrote articles for the school newspaper. In addition to those early articles, he also wrote short stories and plays. At 17, Hughes wanted to reconcile with his father and went to Mexico. However, this proved difficult because they did not agree about what profession Hughes should pursue.  He wanted to be a writer, but his father wanted him to pursue a more practical career. Still, at odds with his father, Hughes returned to his mother in Lincoln to finish high school.

As soon as Hughes graduated high school, he went back to Mexico to request his father help fund his university education. His dad said he would if Hughes studied engineering overseas and did not pursue a degree in the Arts. Langston was opposed to this proposal as he wanted to study at a university in the United States and he wanted to pursue a degree in Arts. Eventually, they came to an agreement and Hughes enrolled in the engineering program at Columbia University. He, however, left after only a year later citing racism at the University.

Hughes did different jobs before becoming the preeminent writer we know today. In 1923, for instance, he was a crewman on a ship en route West Africa and Europe. When his ship reached Paris, he decided to stay friends and ended his position as a crewman. In 1924, he returned to the United States to rejoin his mother who had moved to Washington DC. A year later, after finding work he didn’t like, Hughes returned to his writing roots and became a “busboy poet”.  

Though he still hadn’t found his place, he was pleased with the opportunity to finally publish his work.  During this time, he worked on a collection of poems for a poetry book which ended up being his first piece. After a few years, Hughes decided to return to college and enrolled in Lincoln University in Pennsylvania where he graduated from 1929.  Later in life, Hughes was awarded an honorary doctorate from Howard University.

On May 22, 1967, Hughes who at that time was living in New York City passed away at the age of 65 after a battle with prostate cancer. His ashes were later buried under the floor of the Langston Hughes Auditorium in the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in the Black Culture in Harlem, NY in recognition of his many notable literary achievements and works.