Why is langston hughes famous

Hughes helped Woodson catalog new and noteworthy experiences and achievements of African Americans. These achievements were celebrated in Negro History Week, which Dr. Woodson inaugurated in February between the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. For his own pioneering scholarship, Dr.

It coordinates and develops teaching, research and outreach activities in African-American Studies, and the study of race and culture in American society at KU and throughout the Midwest. This program attracts prominent ethnic minority scholars to the campus in a broad range of disciplines.

Langston Hughes published his first poem in He attended Columbia University , but left after one year to travel. A leading light of the Harlem Renaissance , Hughes published his first book in He went on to write countless works of poetry, prose and plays, as well as a popular column for the Chicago Defender. His parents, James Hughes and Carrie Langston, separated soon after his birth, and his father moved to Mexico.

From that point, he went to live with his mother, and they moved to several cities before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. It was during this time that Hughes first began to write poetry, and one of his teachers introduced him to the poetry of Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman , both of whom Hughes would later cite as primary influences.

Hughes was also a regular contributor to his school's literary magazine and frequently submitted to other poetry magazines, although they would ultimately reject his work. Hughes graduated from high school in and spent the following year in Mexico with his father. In Hughes returned to the United States and enrolled at Columbia University where he studied briefly, and during which time he quickly became a part of Harlem's burgeoning cultural movement, what is commonly known as the Harlem Renaissance.

But Hughes dropped out of Columbia in and worked various odd jobs around New York for the following year, before signing on as a steward on a freighter that took him to Africa and Spain. He left the ship in and lived for a brief time in Paris, where he continued to develop and publish his poetry. In November , Hughes returned to the United States and worked various jobs.

In , he was working as a busboy in a Washington, D. Arna Bontemps. Sterling A. Leslie Pinckney Hill. Brown Sterling Brown was born in Washington, D. He was educated. A graduate of Harvard Academy of American Poets Educator Newsletter. Teach This Poem.

Follow Us. Find Poets. Poetry Near You. Jobs for Poets. Read Stanza. As one of four Hughes poems that appeared in the November issue of Poetry Magazine , as well as his collection The Weary Blues , the poem feels music-like with its stanza and rhymes. The words dig into the dichotomy of the idea of the American dream juxtaposed with the reality of being in a marginalized community. The writer made his mark in this artistic movement by breaking boundaries with his poetry and the renaissance's lasting legacy.

Langston Hughes was born today in Here are seven facts about the influential poet, novelist and playwright who captured the African American experience.