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Langston Hughes was a poet, fiction writer, playwright, columnist, and a leader of the Harlem Renaissance.[1]
Langston Hughes was born on 1 February 1902 in Joplin, Missouri to parents James Hughes and Carrie Langston -- or so he believed, and so say the available records such as his passport application and the cosmogram at the Schomburg Center of the New York Public Library, where his ashes rest. Recently it was discovered that he was alive prior to that date,[2] which has now been revised by a year to 1 February 1901.[3]
He was the son of writer-activist actress Caroline "Carrie" Mercer Langston (c1872-1938) and James Nathaniel Hughes (1871-1934). His father left the family, divorced Carrie, and moved to Cuba and then to Mexico to escape the racism prevalent in the United States.[4]
Langston Hughes grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, Lincoln, Illinois and Cleveland, Ohio, often living with his maternal grandmother. Despite racial prejudices, poverty, and an absentee father, he discovered early in life that he wanted to write poetry, andheld on to that dream. He wanted to attend Columbia University in New York, so with some difficulty, he visited his father in Mexico and was able to convince him to pay for his education.[4]
He fell in love with Harlem, New York, but was not as happy with Columbia, so eventually left without finishing his degree. He worked many jobs that allowed him the time to write. He spent some time working on ships that carried cargo, and so was able to visit Africa and Europe, and spent time in Paris, France.[5]
He returned to the United States and lived some time in Washington, D.C. During these early years many of his works were published, but in 1925, a collection of his poetry was being published by a major publisher (Alfred Knopf). At the time he was working as a busboy at the Wardman Park Hotel. Slipping three poems onto the dining table of Vachel Lindsay, a well-known American poet, was a ploy by Langston to get publicity for his new book. Lindsay took the bait, read the poems at his own poetry reading and "discovered" Langston Hughes.[5]
In 1929 Langston earned a B.A. degree from Lincoln University, in Chester County, Pennsylvania.[4] Langston never married, and he considered home to be "a tenement neighborhood in the heart of Harlem." [6]
Langston drew his inspiration from the street sounds of Harlem. He created a "lifelong flow of warm and sensitive novels, poems, stories and plays" about African American life.[6]
Langston Hughes died on 22 May 1967 at the Polyclinic Hospital in New York, where he had undergone surgery a few days before.[6] [7]
Both of Langston's paternal and maternal great-grandmothers were African-American; his maternal great-grandfather was white and of Scottish descent. A paternal great-grandfather was of European Jewish descent. Langston's maternal grandmother, Mary Patterson, was of African-American, French, English and Native American descent. One of the first women to attend Oberlin College, she first married Lewis Sheridan Leary, also of mixed race. Lewis Sheridan Leary subsequently joined John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry in 1859 and died from his wounds.
In 1869, the widow Mary Patterson Leary married again, into the elite, politically-active Langston family. Her second husband was Charles Henry Langston, of African American, Native American, and Euro-American ancestry. [4]
See also:
This week's connection theme is Saints. Langston is 18 degrees from Marguerite D'Youville, 26 degrees from Birgitta Birgersdotter, 22 degrees from Marguerite Bourgeois, 17 degrees from Katherine Drexel, 23 degrees from Philippine Duchesne, 26 degrees from Isaac Jogues, 21 degrees from Mary MacKillop, 39 degrees from Zélie Martin, 24 degrees from John Newman, 25 degrees from Lorcán Ua Tuathail, 17 degrees from Elizabeth Ann Seton and 31 degrees from Edith Stein on our single family tree. Login to see how you relate to 33 million family members.
H > Hughes > James Mercer Langston Hughes
Categories: African-American Notables | The Chicago Defender | This Day In History May 22 | This Day In History February 01 | United States, Poets | Harlem Renaissance | Fiction Writers | Playwrights | Oberlin College | Joplin, Missouri | LGBTQPlus | Collaborative Profile of the Week | Spingarn Medal | 100 Greatest African Americans | Featured Connections Archive 2020 | US Black Heritage Project Managed Profiles | United States of America, Notables | Notables
This month's WikiTree News showed Connections from 10 Harlem Rennaissance greats but allowed me to find out that not only do i have 22 degree of connection from Langston Hughes that my cousins and i are likely 13th cousins 4x removed.
This part of the family obviously goes back a long way to England with some very interesting British noble families involved. I am hoping to do some personal research on this new branch of the family. anyone with info or who just want to share anything, contact me anytime! I do know that some of my ancestors allow me to join the Daughters of the American Revolution and Colonial Dames and perhaps would help you with this too should you want to.
it is really nice to have family KNOWN that traces so far back in History.
Thank You. Janet
Thanks! Abby
Thank you all for your hard work here, Global Family!
-edit: Aha!! Thank you Anne B. -is there a nice way to work your comment into the profile? In DC I'd gotten the impression that he spent quite a bit of time there (on U Street...)
February, 12015 HE (Holocene/Human Era) ShiraDestinie
Addendum: This is unfortunately the result of a mix up between Langston Hughes's grandmother Mary Sampson Patterson and Mary Jane Patterson, both attending Oberlin College at roughly the same time. Mary Sampson was the ward of James Patterson of Fayetteville, NC, Mary Jane the daughter of Henry Irving Patterson of Raleigh, NC.