James Mercer Langston Hughes February 1, [ 1 ] β May 22, was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. One of the earliest innovators of the literary form called jazz poetry , Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. Growing up in the Midwest , Hughes became a prolific writer at an early age. He moved to New York City as a young man, where he made his career. Although he dropped out, he gained notice from New York publishers, first in The Crisis magazine and then from book publishers, and became known in the creative community in Harlem.
His first poetry collection, The Weary Blues , was published in Hughes eventually graduated from Lincoln University. In addition to poetry, Hughes wrote plays and published short story collections, novels, and several nonfiction works. From to , as the civil rights movement gained traction, Hughes wrote an in-depth weekly opinion column in a leading black newspaper, The Chicago Defender. Like many African-Americans, Hughes was of mixed ancestry. Both of Hughes's paternal great-grandmothers were enslaved Africans, and both of his paternal great-grandfathers were white slave owners in Kentucky.
The other putative paternal ancestor whom Hughes named was Silas Cushenberry, a slave trader of Clark County , who Hughes claimed to be Jewish. One of the first women to attend Oberlin College , she married Lewis Sheridan Leary , also of mixed-race descent, before her studies.
Ten years later, in , the widow Mary Patterson Leary married again, into the elite, politically active Langston family. After their marriage, Charles Langston moved with his family to Kansas, where he was active as an educator and activist for voting and rights for African Americans. They had two children; the second was Langston Hughes, born in in Joplin, Missouri [ 8 ] though Hughes himself claims in his autobiography to have been born in Langston Hughes grew up in a series of Midwestern small towns.
His father left the family soon after the boy was born and later divorced Carrie. The senior Hughes traveled to Cuba and then Mexico, seeking to escape the enduring racism in the United States. After the separation, Hughes's mother traveled, seeking employment.
