Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His childhood could be characterized as being very difficult and troublesome for someone so young. His parents, James Hughes and Carolina Mercer Langston, separated when he was a very young boy in 1903. He spent most of his youth moving around to different households, by either living with his mother or grandmother. .
When Langston turned six he moved to Topeka, Kansas to live with his mother. It was time for him to start school. During that time period, school's were segregated. Hughes" mother wanted him to attend an all white school that was closer by and had better credentials. His mother according to Hughes, "who was always ready to do battle for the rights of free people," (Hill 15.) appealed to the school board in person. She was successful and Hughes started to attend school there.
Attending an all white school was an important step in Hughes" psychological development. This was because he learned that not all white people are bad. In his later works he noted that one of his teacher's constantly made racist jokes and said hurtful and uncalled for comments to Hughes in front of the whole class. However, Hughes soon learned that some of his other teachers were kind and treated him with respect. Also, some classmates were cruel, while others befriended him no questions asked. Langston has been quoted by saying, "So I learned early not to hate all white people" (Rummel 22.) Even though Hughes" first teacher treated him unfairly, she could not deny is strong intellectual abilities. He received a grade of "excellent" on his first report card. Langston continued to succeed throughout his education through highschool. He remained popular in class, was a star athlete, and was known as the class poet. He was an excellent student all around.
Even though Hughes was educated in school, his mother and grandmother has a large part in educating him at home from his early years on.
