Langston Hughes was one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, which was the African American artistic movement in the 1920's that celebrated black life and culture. Hughes's creative genius was influenced by his life in Harlem, New York. 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.
James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri into an abolitionist family. He was the grandson of James Mercer Langston, the first African American to be elected to public office in 1855. His parents divorced when he was a small child and his father moved to Mexico. During this time, Hughes struggled with a sense of desolation fostered by parental neglect, and he recalled being driven early by his loneliness "to books, and the wonderful world in books."" (Life of Langston Hughes: I, Too, Sing America) His grandmother raised him until he was twelve, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and his stepfather, Homer Clark, eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. Hughes attended Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio, but began writing poetry in the eighth grade and was selected as Class Poet. Following graduation from high school in 1920, Hughes spent a year in Mexico with his father and a year at Columbia University. His mother fumed about his departure, and his father offered him little warmth. Yet, with his unique gift for writing, Hughes turned the pain engendered by his parents' conflict into the noted poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," published by Crisis in 1921. (Life of Langston Hughes: I Too, Sing America) His father did not think he would be able to make a living at writing, and encouraged him to pursue a more practical career.