Langston Hughes: A Biography

"I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its path adorn"

Hughes, I Dream a World, 1937

When one mentions the Harlem Renaissance, the name Langston Hughes reverberates as one of the most prominent writer of the era. "He was perhaps the most original of African American poets and, in the breadth and variety of his work, assuredly the most representative of African American writers" (James Hart 201). His African American heritage sets the foundation for most of his works, including The Negro Speaks of Rivers, which literary critics had thoroughly and deliberately discussed in its entirety.

Born in Joplin, Missouri on February 1, 1902, the young Langston Hughes grew up with his maternal grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas (Bloom 189). With his Indian, French and African heritage, Hughes learned in his early age of his ancestors who fought rigorously to end slavery and racial injustice. He went to the controversial Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas as well as managing Columbia University afterward (Bloom 190). Exposed to Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman in his early teens, Hughes successfully published several poems in his university literary magazine Crisis. After college, he ventured out on his own and immediately received respect fro Harlem Renaissance's W.E.B Du Bois and Claude Mckay. Poet Countee Cullen became his close friend. Langston Hughes went to Lincoln University near Philadelphia, hoping to get his Masters in English. In 1926, at only 24, he published his first book of poetry, The Weary Blue (Bloom 193).

In 1919, Hughes composed The Negro Speaks of Rivers, an addition to his first poetry publish. Rachel Duplessis depicted the poem as "a political rejection of a black man identifying with whites, for a white man (Lincoln) identifying with blacks" (Duplessis 58). Hughes actually wrote this piece in honor of W.E.B Du Bois. "'Rivers' presents the narrator's skill in retracing known civilization back to the source in East Africa" (Miller 18). Professor Baxter Miller wrote an extensive research of Langston Hughes in his infamous The Art and Language of Langston Hughes. ""My soul has grown deep like the rivers." Except for the physical and spiritual dimensions, the subjective "I" and the "river" read the same" (Miller 19). Hughes uses the metaphor of the river to emphasize African Americans' cycle from the wilderness in Africa to the journey to slavery in America; eventually the flow of the river would lead African Americans back to Africa, in accordance to Du Bois's diplomatic view on the slavery issue. "Every element of the poem combines to suggest that when the Negro speaks of rivers it is with the accumulated wisdom of a sage" (Oktenberg 168). A sage represents one with intelligence, therefore attributing this quality to the speaker in the poem. "He is now a black man who has experienced the pain of slavery and racism, and his soul now bears the imprint of these experiences" (Joyce 201). At the end of the poem, the Negro identifies with the river as one, evidently by the use of the first person point of view. He travels with the river down the course of history, experience pain and triumph. Yet he remains with the river, ready to follow its course once again in the distant future. Although this poem propagates about the journey of African Americans, Hughes shrewdly avoids certain racial implications. "...it goes back to a pre-"racial" dawn and a geography far from Africa that is identified with neither blackness nor whiteness" (Hutchinson 98). Hughes refers to this journey as the history of mankind, not just the existential Negro in this poem. In one perspective, his message reflects W.E.B Du Bois's wishes on complete segregation; on the other hand, Hughes preaches a common ground toward racial equality.

On March 1966, Hughes flew to Dakar, Senegal to attend the First World Festival of Negro Arts. The president of Senegal, Leopold Sedar Senghorg, singled him out for his historic contribution tot he development of black poetry. The New York Times reported the next day "...young writers from all over Africa followed him about the city and haunted his hotel the way American youngsters dog favorite baseball players" (Charles Scriber 359). On May 1967, Langston Hughes passed away, leaving behind a legacy for the African American movements. His effort greatly influenced the Harlem Renaissance; his contribution in The Negro Speaks of Rivers alone reached enormous respect and support from the movement's leaders. Hughes became a national symbol for democracy, a goal he set out to achieve for African Americans. Little did he know that his dream for racial equality has come true.

Works Cited:

Langston Hughes: comprehensive research and study guide. Broomall, PA : Chelsea House Publishers, c1999

African American writers. 2^nd. Ed. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, c2001

Genders, Races and Religious Cultures in Modern American Poetry, 1908-1934. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, c2001

The Art and Language of Langston Hughes Lexington, KY : University Press of Kentucky, c1989

Ed Marie Harris. A Gift of Tongues: Critical Challenges in Contemporary American Poetry. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, c1987

The Harlem Renaissance in Black and White Cambridge, MA: President and Board of Fellows of Harvard College, c1995

"Langston Hughes". An Online Journal and Multimedia Companion to Anthology of Modern American Poetry. January 1, 2000. Cary Nelson. May 11, 2006.