by skylarp91
Social Studies Subject:
His literary works helped shape American literature and politics. Hughes, like others active in the Harlem Renaissance, had a strong sense of racial pride. Through his poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children's books, he promoted equality, condemned racism and injustice, and celebrated African American culture, humor, and spirituality.
Langston Hughes wrote from 1926 to 1967. In that time he wrote more than 60 books, including poems, novels, short stories, plays, children's poetry, musicals, operas, and autobiographies. He was the first African American to support himself as a writer, and he wrote from his own experience.
Langston Hughes, whose full name was James Mercer Langston Hughes, was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. He was the only son of James Nathaniel Hughes and Carrie Mercer Langston. His parents divorced when he was young and his father moved to Mexico. Because his mother traveled a lot to find workand was often absent, his grandmother raised Hughes until he was 12. His childhood was lonely and he often occupied himself with books. It was Hughes's grandmother, a great storyteller, who transferred to him her love of literature and the importance of becoming educated. After high school, Hughes traveled in Mexico, Europe, and Africa sometimes by working on freighters. By 1924 he had settled in Harlem, New York, and was an important figure during the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance was an African-American cultural movement that focused on literature, music, theater, art, and politics. One of his favorite pastimes was to sit in clubs and listen to the blues as he wrote his poetry. Hughes died on May 22, 1967, in New York, NY from cancer.
His Impact
Contributions To Harlem RENAISSANCE
Hughes, T. (n.d.). The biography of Langston Hughes. Poemhunter.com. Retrieved March 5, 2014, from http://www.poemhunter.com/langston-hughes/biography/Langston Hughes. (n.d.). Poets.org. Retrieved March 6, 2014, from http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/83TEACHERS. (n.d.). Scholastic Teachers. Retrieved March 7, 2014, from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/contributor/langston-hughes
Interview with Langston
SS5H4 The student will describe U.S. involvement in World War I and post-World b. Describe the cultural developments and individual contributions in the 1920s of the Jazz Age (Louis Armstrong), the Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes), baseball (Babe Ruth), the automobile (Henry Ford), and the airplane (Charles Lindbergh).
reinassance