The Harlem Renaissance was an intense period of creativity where Blacks, many for the first time, found themselves showing pride in their heritage. Langston Hughes was one of the most prominent figures of this time, and in turn, his works have become timeless because of the issues he dealt with in regard to repression and freedom. Many of his ideas, and pieces are still pertinent today, not only for Americans, but for people of other societies who have been repressed politically or socially and on a larger scale, a lesson for those who would repress them.
Hughes was not born in New York, but rather in Joplin, Missouri. His father didn’t think he’d be a success as a writer so he paid for Hughes to attend Columbia University, if he agreed to major in Engineering. This was an incredible opportunity for an African American at this time, and Langston did go to Columbia for a short while. He did well in his studies, but it was obvious to him that he was a writer by heart, and he eventually left Columbia and pursued writing. This was a good choice because he soon became published and one of his most famous poems, “The Negro Speaks Of Rivers,” came out, to be followed by many others. By 1926 Langston Hughes had appeared on the writing scene and would remain there for the next 4 decades.
After traveling extensively throughout Africa and Europe in 1923, Hughes returned to the States and returned to Harlem in 1924. At the time the Renaissance was in full bloom with such greats as Duke Ellington making names for themselves. The Cotton Club and The Apollo were among the clubs that Langston regularly visited, and found creative inspiration in. His writing went into overdrive and he was published numerous times. In 1925 he moved to Washington D.C. for a year, and found the rich jazz society of the nation's capitol, before moving back to where it all started in Harlem in 1926.
By 1929 Langston had received his BA from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, to which he had been accepted on a scholarship. Hughes continued to write, and be published, and became a mainstay of the black culture. The issues he wrote about in his poems were that of regular people,
