Fun Facts

• He was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist.
• He was born in Joplin, Missouri.
• He was cremated.
•  He was in the Harlem renaissance.
• He supported himself through his writing.
• died of prostate cancer.
• his father was James Nathaniel Hughes and his mom was Caroline langston.
• his parnents divorced when he was young and left him to live his grandma.
• He was a poet, playwright, and novelist.
• In May 1925, his first book "The Weary Blues," won first prize in poetry in a major literary contest ran by Opportunity, the magazine of the Urban League. 
•  He dropped out of college.
•  He lived in mexico for awhile, at the expense of his father.
•  He worked as a sailor before becoming a writer.
• Several people mistook him for a mexican, because he had somewhat light skin and wavy hair. However, each time he proudly stated he was black,
•  He was voted "Class Poet" in hgh school.

Langston Hughes Death

On May 22, 1967, Hughes died from complications after abdominal surgery, related to prostate cancer, at the age of 65. His ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion in the middle of the foyer in the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. It is the entrance to an auditorium named for him. The design on the floor is an African cosmogram titled Rivers. The title is taken from his poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". Within the center of the cosmogram is the line: "My soul has grown deep like the rivers".

Awards

• 1943, Lincoln University awarded Hughes an honorary Litt.D 
• 1960, the NAACP awarded Hughes the Spingarn Medal for distinguished achievements byan African American
• 1961 National Institute of Arts and Letters
• 1963 Howard University awarded Hughes an honorary doctorate.
• 1973, the first Langston Hughes Medal was awarded by the City College of New York.
• 1979, Langston Hughes Middle School was created in Reston, Virginia.
• 1981, New York City Landmark status was given to the Harlem home of Langston Hughes at 20 East 127th Street  by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and 127th St. was renamed Langston Hughes Place.The Langston Hughes House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
• 2002 The United States Postal Service added the image of Langston Hughes to its Black Heritage series of postage stamps.
• 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Langston Hughes on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans. 
 
 
 
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University holds the Langston Hughes papers (1862–1980) and the Langston Hughes collection (1924–1969) containing letters, manuscripts, personal items, photographs, clippings, artworks, and objects that document the life of Hughes. The Langston Hughes Memorial Library on the campus of Lincoln University, as well as at the James Weldon Johnson Collection within the Yale University also hold archives of Hughes' work

political views

Hughes, like many black writers and artists of his time, was drawn to the promise of communism as an alternative to a segreated America.In 1932, Hughes became part of a group of black people who went to the Soviet Union to make a film depicting the plight of African Americans in the United States. Hughes met and befriended the Hungarian author Arthur Koestler, then a Communist sympathizer and given permission to travel there. Hughes also managed to travel to China and Japan before returning to the States. Hughes was accused of being a Communist by many on the political right, but he always denied it. When asked why he never joined the Communist Party, he wrote, "it was based on strict discipline and the acceptance of directives that I, as a writer, did not wish to accept. Hughes distanced himself from Communism. He was rebuked by some on the Radical Left who had previously supported him. Over time, Hughes left his most radical poems behind.

cotton club performers

No aspect of the Harlem Renaissance shaped America and the entire world as much as jazz. Jazz flouted many musical conventions with its syncopated rhythms and improvised instrumental solos. Thousands of city dwellers flocked night after night to see the same performers. Improvisation meant that no two performances would ever be the same. Harlem's Cotton Club boasted the talents of Duke Ellington. Singers such as Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday popularized blues and jazz vocals. Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong drew huge audiences as white Americans as well as African Americans caught jazz fever.The artists of the Harlem Renaissance undoubtedly transformed African American culture. But the impact on all American culture was equally strong. For the first time, white America could not look away.

cotton club

By 1958, the Cotton Club was a boarded up building and Urban Renewal would take precedent for the arrival of the Bethune Tower superblock (Minisink) which would eventually spell the demise of Harlem’s most famous jazz nightclub.The original Cotton Club opened in the 1920′s on 142nd street and Lenox Avenue when central Harlem was the playground of the rich. The club was segregated in the sense that only white patrons could enter the establishment while all the service and entertainment was provided by black entertainers who often worked jungle themes or black face parodies for their guests. If you were a Black woman and wanted to perform there, you had to be “light, bright, and damn near white!”Today, there is a new incarnation of the Cotton Club which sits on the most western end of 125th street under the massive Manhattanville viaduct. The windowless block of a building has a less dramatic display out front but seems to be popular  with tourists for Sunday jazz brunches.

harlem renaissance

Langston Hughes used his art and skill in poetry, social activism, writing columns, novels as well as playwright to push for equality and humane treatment of African Americans. The fiction attracted huge attention from the affected populace and they became inspired.Hughes wrote in many genres, but he is best known for his poetry in which he disregarded classical forms in favor of musical rhythms and the oral and improvisatory traditions of black culture.Langston Hughes earned a place amongst the greatest poets America has ever produced. The literature he created became part of the Harlem Renaissance Movement. Harlem Renaissance timeline:http://www.bookrags.com/research/harlem-renaissance-timeline-hren-01/