JAMES LANGSTON HUGHES
A Poet to Remember
Personal Life
James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902
in Joplin, Missouri. When his parents got divorced
when he was a young boy, his father moved to
Mexico. He was raised by his grandmother until he
was 13, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois to live
with his mother and her husband. They eventually
moved and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. After
graduation, he spent a year in Mexico and a year at
Columbia University. In November, 1924 he moved
to Washington D.C. He finished his college education
at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years
later. Langston Hughes died of Cancer in New York,
1967.
An Artist At Work
Langston Hughes
Black Heritage Stamp
Langston Hughes was no only a poet,
but a play writer and a novelist. His
first play, Mulatto, opened on
Broadway in 1935. His poem, The
Nigro Speaks of Rivers, was made into
a musical piece. He was first inspired
by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl
Sandburg, and Walt Whiteman to write
poems, He first started writing poems
in Lincoln, Illinois. His first book of
poetry, The Weary Blues, was
published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926.
In 1930, his first novel, Not Without
Laughter, won the Harmon gold medal
A Few Poems by
Langston Hughes
A few poems by
Langston Hughes
are The Nigro
Speaks of the River,
Mother to Son, My
People, I Too, The
Dream Keeper,
Migration, and The
Weary Blues. The
Weary Blues was
about the music
from the Harlem
Renaissance.
A verse from The Weary Blues:
Thump, Thump, Thump went his foot on the floor
He played a few chords then he sang some more
I got the Weary Blues
And I can’t be satisfied
Got the Weary Blues
And can’t be satisfied-I ain’t happy no mo
And I wished I had died “
And into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that was dead.
Sources
By Amanda, Jeff,
Conner, Tye, Loke, and
Devan.
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www.howard.edu
www.poets.org
www.americaslibrary.gov
www.pbs.org
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