Asa Philip Randolph once said: “Freedom is never given; it is won. ” During the Harlem Renaissance, African Americans certainly lost the fight against the white people for freedom and racial equality. Although participating in numerous acts of protest for their civil rights, the overpowering issue of racism in society denied the colored people their liberty as human beings. Life for black people seemed to be a broken record; one full of lost hope, withered dreams, and ungranted wishes.
Langston Hughes, a famous American poet and social activist, lived a childhood which had a great influence on his style of poetry and he messages he spread through his literature. In Harlem, New York, Langston Hughes was known for being a well-spoken social activist and expressing the need to end racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans. Born in 1902, Hughes experienced the life of a poor boy residing with his single, jobless mother (“Langston Hughes” EXPLORING Short Stories, Gale, Detroit, 2003. ).
This bestowed in him an excellent sense of character which he would carry all throughout his young adolescence. Hughes, at the peak of his literary career, was looked upon by his followers as a hero. After his death in 1967, Hughes was and would forever be remembered as an innovator in the Renaissance, introducing new ways to integrate society and provide equal rights for all people. Through his poetry, Langston Hughes not only expressed the ideals of colored people dealing with racism, but he also informed America on the benefits of social equality (“Langston Hughes”- EXPLORING Short Stories, Gale, Detroit, 2003. ).
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual movement that ultimately brought together a new identity for African Americans in 1920’s-1930’s American culture. Literature played a major ole in the Renaissance, inspiring many black writers to travel up north and focus their work on life in the ghettos and the fight for racial equality (“Langston Hughes”, DISCovering Authors, Gale, Detroit, 2003. ). Music was an important aspect of the Renaissance as well. Many black authors incorporated jazz into their poetry to express the African Americans’ interest in this style of music (“Langston Hughes”, DISCovering Authors, Gale, Detroit, 2003. . Although the Harlem Renaissance did not break the rigid barrier between the rights of white people versus the colored, it did,in fact, decrease the amount of tension between he two races and give blacks a particular pride in their own culture. Langston Hughes, as an African American in the early 1900s, grew up extremely poor. When he was young, Hughes’s life consisted of traveling across the country with his mother as she looked for a job opportunity.
There were many cases in which Hughes had to live with relatives or close friends because his mom was tied up in finding a job and could not commit to taking care of her son for the time being. Later in his childhood, when Hughes was old enough to be employed, him and his mom worked together to support themselves financially “Langston Hughes”- EXPLORING Short Stories, Gale, Detroit, 2003. ). In other words, Langston Hughes knew exactly what it was like to grow up poverty-stricken. His poem, Mother to Son, perfectly relates to how the issue of poverty influenced his poetry.
This piece of literature portrays a meaningful conversation between a mother and her son, in which the mother tells her child that he will have to learn how to overcome obstacles in his life just as she once had and still does to this day. It is highly likely that Langston and his mother, Carrie, had this type of conversation when he was growing up ue to their substandard living conditions. Mary Langston, Hughes’s grandmother, and James Nathaniel Hughes, Hughes’s father, each had great impact on his style of poetry during the Renaissance. However, they impacted his poems in two totally different ways.
Hughes’s grandmother, from the time he was in grammar school, told him stories about heroic black figures. These stories sparked his love for literature, built up his pride for these people, and motivated him to share his grandmother’s words with the world (“Langston Hughes”- St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Gale, Detroit, Feb. 2013. ). Hughes’s father, on the other hand, ngered him so much with racist tendencies towards his own type that Hughes became tremendously eager to support his fellow African Americans through writing (“Langston Hughes”- St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Gale, Detroit, Feb. 2013.).
One of Hughes’s well known poems, I look at the World, demonstrates the profound effect his grandmother and father had on his poems, considering they were the first people to motivate him to be successful in life. In this particular piece, Langston Hughes gains deep understanding for his current role in life as a black young man. Nevertheless, Hughes, unlike many f his peers, is determined to seek better opportunity. An example of this determination occurs in the poem when Hughes says he is no longer “blind”; referring to the fact that he believes he is able to overcome stereotypical views and be whoever he wants to be.
If you were to ask any twentieth century African American what had the most negative effect on their life, I guarantee that racism would be the answer. Langston Hughes experienced many different forms of prejudice behavior and discrimination against him because of his skin color. For example, when working as a hotel busboy, Hughes was treated unfairly through evere class distinctions between him and his fellow white co- workers. This made him unhappy with society and the cruel punishment that was forced upon him without reason (“Langston Hughes”- Encyclopedia of World Biography, Gale, Detroit, Dec. 998. ).
Feeling dejected by the white people in his life, Langston Hughes focused his poetry on the lives of black Americans who were denied their civil rights of humanity and felt as if their very existence had vanished with the way they were treated (“Langston Hughes”, DISCovering Authors, Gale, Detroit, 2003. ). Hughes’s experiences with racist behavior in his arly life influenced one of his most famous poems: I, Too. This poem was written in an indignant tone; much similar to the way Hughes felt when he was fighting for equality.
The narrator of I, Too, a slave residing in a white family’s home, is looked upon as less of a human being than his owners. Even so, the narrator believes that one day the white people will realize he is the same as them, only with a different skin color. Langston Hughes’s early life clearly had a great influence on his style of poetry and the overall themes behind his writing. Growing up with little money, his relationship with both his ather and grandmother, and racism during the Harlem Renaissance were three aspects of Hughes’s life that affected what he wrote in his poems.
Throughout his career, Hughes was adamant on using his literature to, eventually, award African Americans with what they have deserved for centuries- civil rights and freedom. Hughes, as well as a famous poet, was a hero to young African Americans who desired life outside the realm of segregation and discrimination. Langston Hughes had a voice that will forever be remembered in black history; one that showed better life for, not only African Americans, but America as a whole.