Langston Hughes was born on a cold winter morning on February in the year of 1902. He was born in Japlin, in the state of Missouri. James was a member of an abolitionist family (abolitionist-Advocacy of the abolition of slavery.) He was the grandson of Charles Henry Langston. His brother name was John Mercer Langston who was the first black American to be elected into a public office in the year 1855. Langston who was an African American spent most of his writing time talking about civil rights and rights of African Americans. During the time he live the segregation was very strong and Wight people dominated American and really actually ran the show for African Americans.

        Later on in his life he attended Central high school in Cleveland, in the state of Ohio. This is about the time he wrote his first poems. Although they weren’t noticed as much as they are today. When he was in the eighth grade he won best poet in his class.                The next thing in his life was that his father paid for him to take classes at Columbia University on the grounds that he would be studying to become an engineer. During this time he wrote his and now one most famous poems called “The Negro speaks of Rivers” these poems was published in the year 1921, in the Journal Crises.

        In the year 1926 he wrote one of his finest essays, which appeared in The Nation titled “The Negro Artist and Racial Mountain.”

        In 1923, Langston traveled abroad on a freighter to the Sengal Nigeria. He also traveled to Belgium, Angola, and Guinea in Africa, France, Russia, and Spain. This helped with his outlooks and on America and his writing.

        After he returned back to America he moved to Washington D.C. in 1925. This year he won a literary contest with “The Weary Blues.” With that poem he won the support of a prominent poet of his name was Vachel Lindsey. He met Langston him when he visited a hotel restaurant in Washington D.C. where Langston worked as a bus boy. Lindsey had discovered Langston poem next to his dinner plate. He read it and was very impressed with Langston Hughes work.

        Langston was given a scholarship to Lincoln University in the state of Pennsylvania. Langston became a prolific writer that would say his true feeling about a matter. This was really incredible because in this time black people were not free rights, and still weren’t considering equal to white people.

        After his first book around his high school years and after he spent his life doing things that other people wanted him to do. The last forty years of his life he spent doing what he wanted to do and that was writer his books and poetry.

        Langston Hughes grew up in a time frame where blacks weren’t treated the same. This time was a difficult time in America History.  What makes him such a great author is because he took a step out of the box and took a risk that might have helped change America for the good. It was almost like he was fighting a war you could not see.

        When I first started this report I started to think that he might be a bitter person but really he had saw things that I could never have imagine. I think that even though he wrote mainly poetry he wrote novels that might have change many peoples point of view. When he became older after writing for about forty years he passed away on May 22, 1967, in New York from prostate cancer. In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem, New York City, has been given landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission, and East 127th Street was renamed "Langston Hughes Place."