About Langston Hughes Life
- Jack Hanigan
- Mar 5, 2015
- 1 min read
Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri on 1 February 1902. His early family life was very unsettled because he moved around a lot. This made him feel rootless and lonely. He was confused about what it meant to be black in America in the early 1900s. This affected his poetry. He was influenced by street blues and gospel songs in church.
Hughes went to school at Central High in Cleveland, Ohio which was a school of working class people and was named the class poet by his peers.
Hughes travelled a lot during his life and made many trips to Africa to connect himself with his African heritage.
He was very aware of American racism at the time and used protest poetry to express his feelings.
The key poets influencing Langston was Walt Whitman, Carl Sandburg’s and other black writers. Langston used personal experiences with the legacy of racism in his poems.
Langston died in New York May 22nd 1967.
Comments