Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes

Samuel Johnson once said, “Great works are performed, not by strength, but by perseverance.” This quote well describes Langston Hughes. Langston was a gay African American man who grew up hearing things like, “Be like them white folks”. Hearing things like this put down his self esteem. Even though he heard these comments, he still persevered to be a great writer. People say his poems were wonderful because when he wrote he connected to all races. When he connected to all races, more people understood his writing. Since more people understood his writing, more people loved it. Now Langston Hughes is considered one of the greatest poets of his time.

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes had an abnormal childhood when he was young. He was born on February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri as a child of Carrie Mercer Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes. His father, James, was a bookkeeper and his mother, Carrie, was a stenographer. As a young child, Langston’s parents divorced and his mother remarried to a man named Homer Clark. After the divorce his father moved to Mexico. At the age of thirteen his grandmother, Mary Langston, died and he, his mother, and his step father moved to Lincoln, Illinois. Finally, the family settled in Cleveland, Ohio and went to school at Central High School.

After graduating, Langston Hughes was not sure what he wanted to do. From 1919 to 1920, he went to live with his dad in Mexico. There is where he wrote his first poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, which is now considered one of his greatest works. After that, he got a job as an assistant cook and dishwasher. This job allowed him to travel to places like Africa, Holland, and Paris. When he came back to the United States he worked as a busboy in Washington D.C. He decided to go back to college but this time he went Lincoln University. There on a scholarship he received his Bachelor Degree in 1929. Now with a bachelor’s degree he was ready to go out in the writing world.

In the writing world Langston Hughes was encouraged by people such as Jessie Fauset, W.E.B. Du Bois, and James Weldon Johnson. Once he started writing the black press turned him down because they believed he was too realistic and called him things like “Sewer Dweller” and “Piffling Trash”. On the other hand the white press loved his work for various reasons which included, he wrote like a writer they have never seen before. During this time Langston received financial support from his godmother, Charlotte Mason, who was an elderly, wealthy widow. Under the financial support from his godmother he wrote “Goodbye Christ”, which turned some of his friends against him.

In 1935, when he started working in the wonderful country Spain. There in Spain he received support from Guggenheim Fellowship. Not many people get the opportunity to receive support from Guggenheim Fellowship. Working in Spain gave Langston another opportunity to explore and understand another culture. The only reason Langston Hughes is what he is today is because of the fellowship.

Langston Hughes lived a long successful life and accomplished a numerous amount of works. In the year 1963 he received honorary doctorate from Howard University. In 1964 he received the Western Reserved University. He wrote over forty books in his time, one including an autobiography of his life up until 1931, called “The Big Sea”. On May 22, 1967 in New York City, he died. Langston died from prostate cancer, failed kidney, and a failed heart. After he died, 127th street was named, “The Langston Hughes Place” after Langston because of his wonderful and great accomplishments.’

Langston Hughes shows that an every day man can show respect, honesty, bravery, and perseverance. If an every day man shows these qualities to me that means he or she is a true hero. People like Langston Hughes never give up or settle for less than their best. He was always honest in his work and never put anything in there that he didn’t believe in no matter who disliked it which also showed bravery. Respecting other people’s cultures was also something he did when he wrote. He was a wonderful man and I will always admire him and his work.