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Langston Hughes Social Activist

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ESSAY 1 Langston Hughes: Social Activist and Writer of the Black Movement It cannot be doubted that Langston Hughes is not just one of the most illustrious Black Writers but also one who had a very strong contribution to the early struggles of the Black Americans against discrimination and segregation in the country. Hughes exceptionally combined the power of his art and his political voice in advancing his stand to the pressing issues of his day, most notable of which was the assertion of the rights of Black Americans and of their stature in the economic, political and cultural spheres of society. This movement was then tagged as the Harlem Renaissance movement owing to the fact that it gained steam in Harlem, New York. In the wake of the …show more content…

What is well-admired in this piece is the way Hughes was able deceive the readers in a good way, by using Black characters and then playing with their expectations only to shatter them. When readers might be expecting a story about the discrimination of Black citizens again – the characters were a Black woman and a Black child – a plot twist rendered this prejudgment highly insufficient to match the complexity of the story. Notably, the story had a woman and a child as its characters, as abovementioned and this is interesting because they belong to another set of categories which are generally viewed and actually disenfranchised in their own ways too. Hence, the very selection of characters seem to divert the attention away from Black-ness alone and bring up other issues like gender and social ills that harm …show more content…

Instead of saying “We are all humans” as Hughes did in the story, in this poem, he has a more modest but no less veritable pronouncement: we are all Americans. The poem smacks with pride – and rightfully so – as much as it flowers with confidence and firmness. With the bold statements captured in this poem, Hughes was able to assert the face of the Black American and hoped, if not foretold a future when they, the “darker brother,” and their “whiter” brothers we can presume they have, will be under a single name: all as

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The Harlem Renaissance was a period in American history, which occurred in the 1920s in Harlem, New York. The cultural movement was an opportunity for African Americans to celebrate their heritage through intellectual and artistic works. Langston Hughes, a famous poet, was a product of the Harlem Renaissance. One notable piece of literature by Hughes is “Dream Deferred”. However, the discussion of African American culture isn’t limited to the 1920s.

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There are so many writers and people who do not write also that look up to him. He accepted the challenge of expressing the heart and soul of African Americans. Keenly aware of racism, Hughes visioned a nation where domestic problems could be realized. Hughes in his poetry, expressed his own reactions to incidents in his life and in the world at large. Langston Hughes left such a lasting impression on poetry , black culture, and the people in his life, that he changed the way they lived with the spirit and soul he put into his

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1800 Words | 8 Pages

The Harlem Renaissance was a “outpouring of writing, music, and social criticism” (Baker, 1987) aimed at destroying the ever-present racism of the 1920s. Langston Hughes, an artist of the Harlem Renaissance, was a big contributor to change, inspiring those of his own time and later on to stand up for African American rights. Penning the 1926 manifesto The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain, Hughes encapsulated the thoughts of Harlem, and urged African Americans to be proud of their own culture, “without fear or shame” (Hughes in Bernard, 2011).

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• R Miller. “The Art and Imagination of Langston Hughes.” The University Press of Kentucky, 2015. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=sso&db=e900xww&AN=938376&site=eds-live • Bernard, Patrick S. “A ‘Cipher Language’: Thomas W. Talley and Call-and-Response during the Harlem Renaissance.”

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American novelist, poet, and playwright Langston Hughes was born in Joplin Missouri in February 1902. Soon after he was born, his parents separated, and his father moved away to Mexico. He was raised by his maternal grandmother, until her death. After she died, he began to write poetry and Walt Whitman and Carl Sandburg were major early influences in his work. After he graduated from high school in 1920 Hughes spent the next year with his father in Mexico.

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Since the times of slavery there have been problems of children who were born to those of a white father, a master. This caused intense emotional trauma to the children who are conceived from the acts of their mothers being raped. This poem dealt with not the physical part of cruelty, but the emotional. This writing is of a young boy who is trying to express his frustration of being a mulatto, being born of both a black and a white parent, and never being able to feel excepted in neither the black or white race. The opening of Hughes “Mulatto” is words expressed from the boy to his white father, “I am your son, white man! /

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The poem Langston Hughes wrote in 1936 called “Let America be America again”. Langston Hughes an afro American in the United States of America. Langston Hughes' philosophical idea was equality in the United States of America. The first way Langston Hughes shows his philosophical idea of equality is by showing he wants everyone to be treated fairly and have the government not allow people to be racist to the Afro-Americans, Indians, and other immigrants located in the United States of America. The second way Langston Hughes shows his philosophical idea of equality is by showing his desire and dedication towards of achieving equality and shows off his dedication of hard work to achieve his dream but can’t due to of the barriers he has to overcome

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The culture of most blacks was unwanted during this time. For this reason Hughes desired to make a change and illustrate such cultural identities in his poems. In doing this he caused a shift in ideas among all people. Although the change didn’t happen immediately it did eventually occur. With that said the African American people were given less of an opportunity at jobs, schooling, and most importantly culture.

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Langston Hughes and Martin Luther King grew up in somewhat similar environments. Both, as african american men, had to deal with the everyday and very evident racism of an unequal society. Langston Hughes was raised by his Grandmother until her death. He went to live with his mother, “and they moved to several cities before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio,” (Biography.com Editors 2). Here, he went through the self-discovery period of teenage years, at Central High School, a predominantly white high school.

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We know we are beautiful… If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves” (Hughes). Langston Hughes showed young Black artists that they could be proud of themselves and for them to not be afraid of showing that pride in their artwork.

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New eras and styles brought up new literalist who then brought different views on the topics they were passionate about. In the 1900’s, an African American’s life was no walk in the park. They were still seemed as less by other white Americans and looked down upon in society. But poets and other writers like Langston Hughes helped eradicate the growth of discrimination and expressed the beauty of the black culture. With his own unique style, Hughes showed America that he, as well as all black Americans, have a voice and they will use it and fight for equal

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He writes, “The Negro said: “We can’t go downtown and sit and stare at you in your clubs While whites got the pleasure to enjoy everything that was offered to them, Negros had the deal with other end of frustrating place of unfairness. Hughes also feels that people made it seem like Negros were given opportunities (“Langston Hughes and Alain Locke’s Harlem Renaissance; African American Black Renaissance Harlem Poetry”). With trends toward interdisciplinary, internationalist, and cross-race scholarship dominating American studies at the end of the twentieth century, subsequent work attends to the journalists, sociologists, historians, and performance artists who were often financed by the patrons, prizes, and grants that have been analyzed only as they affected literary work (“Harlem Renaissance – Credo

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This viewpoint is very confident for the future and seems to allude to Hughes knowing that one day African Americans will be seen as equal to everyone else. Maya Angelou also has a well-known poem titled “Still I Rise” in which she talks about how even with everything going against her and all African Americans, they still overcome it all and stand strong. This poem is confident as well, but in a different way than Hughes’s poem. Hughes’s poem is confident that people will one day see him for who he is, but Angelou’s poem is confident because it accuses

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Langston Hughes is an African American Poet who is very closely connected to his culture and expresses his feelings very thoroughly through his poetry in a jazz style. Langston Hughes is a modern poet who ignore the classical style of writing poetry and instead, in favor of oral and improve traditions of the Black culture. In majority of Langston’s poetry, many of his audience seems to take away a very strong message that many can apply to themselves or to others or his poems gives you an educational background of what’s going on in the African American community right now. For example, Langston Hughes writes a poetry piece called Afro American Fragment, which gives you a great breakdown of what an everyday African American person goes through considering that their whole history is basically taken away from them. Langston seems to show his audience that in books we never hear much about what contributions a African American person has done except for being brought to America and being a slave.

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In the poem “I, Too”, the author Langston Hughes illustrates the key aspect of racial discrimination faces against the African Americans to further appeals the people to challenge white supremacy. He conveys the idea that black Americans are as important in the society. Frist, Hughes utilizes the shift of tones to indicate the thrive of African American power. In the first stanza, the speaker shows the sense of nation pride through the use of patriotic tone. The first line of the poem, “I, too, sing America” states the speaker’s state of mind.

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