Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance
Throughout American history all groups of people have faced periods of inequality and injustice. One of the most recognizable eras of these hardships was during the mid-1900s when African Americans faced harsh segregation and injustice. After slavery was abolished in 1865, many African Americans hoped that they would finally be granted equal rights. However, to their surprise, equality was not a top priority on the government’s list of things to do. For many years black citizens angrily tolerated the cruel Jim Crow Laws and hardships of injustice but it wasn’t until the 20th century that brave individuals began to fight back. Heroic figures such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, W. E. Dubois, and Langston Hughes protested for equal rights both peacefully and violently. While some activists were physically involved, others were mentally involved. Langston Hughes is one of those brave figures who were mentally involved. While he did not physically set up campaigns and protest with other individuals, his poems of injustice and inequality were internationally known and spoke loudly for all
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He spent most of his childhood with his grandmother in Kansas while his mother traveled the country looking for work while his father lived in Mexico where segregation laws did not exist. When his mother came to visit, they spent a majority of their time at the library where Hughes learned to love books. Hughes was confronted with the harsh reality of racism at a young age. When the time came for him to go to school, Hughes was told he could not attend the “white” school and must travel far across town to a different school because he was “black”. Hughes’ mother refused to do this and took the issue to the school board. She won. It was these very incidents that inspired Langston Hughes to become the voice for the oppressed and began his journey as a