Sometimes people are not aware of what these great writers did to change history. Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri.
He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry. Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. He famously wrote about the period that "the negro was in vogue", which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue".
Some academics and biographers believe that Hughes was homosexual and included homosexual codes in many of his poems, as did Walt Whitman, whom Hughes said influenced his poetry. Hughes's story "Blessed Assurance" deals with a father's anger over his son's effeminacy and "queerness". The biographer Aldrich argues that, in order to retain the respect and support of black churches and organizations and avoid exacerbating his precarious financial situation, Hughes remained closeted.
| Born | James Mercer Langston Hughes February 1, 1902 Joplin, Missouri, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Died | May 22, 1967 (aged 65) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation | Poet, columnist, dramatist, essayist, novelist |
| Education | Lincoln University of Pennsylvania |
| Period | 1926–64 |
Langston Hughes - Wikipedia My Adventures as a Social Poet essay Phylon 3rd Quarter 1947 Question by Langston Hughes with audiobook recording The Mule-Bone by Zora Hurston and Langston Hughes The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes with audiobook recording 
Question by Langston Hughes audiobook recording MP3 The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes audiobook recording MP3 Langston Hughes: This is why poet who wrote I Dream A World has been given a Google doodle
Google has marked what would have been the 113th birthday of pioneering African-American jazz poet and social activist, Langston Hughes, with a Doodle on its homepage.
The animated sequence shows a caricature of Hughes at his typewriter as lines from his poem I Dream a World appear.
Hughes was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, and largely raised by his grandmother while his mother looked for work. His father - with whom he had troubled relationship - had left the family and travelled to Cuba and Mexico in an attempt to escape the racism that was rife in America at the time. Hughes joined his father in Mexico and agreed to study engineering so long as he could attend Colombia University. He left the following year due to racial prejudice.
He travelled to West Africa and Europe before returning to the US taking various jobs before meeting the poet Vachel Lindsay while working as a busboy at a Washington hotel. Lindsay was impressed with Hughes' work and became his patron.
