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The Impact Of Langston Hughes On African-American Culture

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Starting in 1918 and originating in Harlem, New York City, Harlem Renaissance is the intellectual revolution of the African-American community. The movement revived African-American music, art, dance, and literature, and laid the foundations of today’s black existence. Born in 1901, Langston Hughes describes the Harlem Renaissance as providing an opportunity for the African-American community to “express (their) individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame.” One of the presiding reasons Hughes became a cultural reset is how he was inspired by his own experiences while composing his work. In a timeline in which the African-American community was widely mistreated, his people saw their own pain in his work, people of different ethnicities …show more content…

Furthermore, his deep affiliation with political events of his time and presence as a vocal advocate for Civil Rights and social justice led him to often address these issues directly in his work. The experiences and stance of Hughes shaped his work in a way that created a brand new point of view that could only be understood if the reader knew about his background. The peculiar way Langston Hughes commits to paper on account of his personal experiences relating to racial prejudice successfully represents the struggles of the African-American community.

Hughes depicts that America appears to be unified solely by counting each individual as worthy of recognition through a poem published during his time of figurative imprisonment. To clarify, In 1924, during his visit to Genoa, Italy, Hughes’ passport and wallet …show more content…

First and foremost, Hughes wrote “The Negro Speaks the Rivers” while crossing the Missisipi River to visit his estranged father at the age of 17. The observation is his inspiration of resembling his soul to a river. The simile aims to illustrate the flow of water in a river to the flow of the blood in the African-American community’s veins. Therefore, the symbolism of river and blood is to illustrate the African-American existence to the world. For instance, the Euphrates, as mentioned in the 4th line, is the birthplace of all civilizations, therefore the rhetorical beginning of humanity. Through the phrase “I bathed in the Euphrates when nights were young”, Hughes illustrates that the black existence stands to the very beginning. Furthermore, the line ““I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it” is an enonym to the lost black lives whilst building the pyramids for the pharaohs, further communicating the contribution of the black community to the world history, which is neglected in the history narrated by white imperialists. The climax is reached when a reference is made to Abraham Lincoln’s visit to the Mississippi River when he observed the hidden face of slavery that led him to ban slavery during his presidency. This illustrates the idea that the black existence is never to

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The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that took place in Harlem between the end of World War I and the middle of the 1930s. It was a very cultural, social, and artistic movement where African American jazz performers, authors, poets, musicians, entertainers, and actors all gave themselves a name. But during the time it was known as the “New Negro Movement” named after Alain Locke. This was a time where new cultural expressions were coming about the urban areas in the Northeast of the United States. But this whole “new negro movement” didn’t just happen out of nowhere, there is a cause of how this happened.

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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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The development of the Harlem neighborhood in New York City, as a black cultural time period in the early 20th century is also known as the Harlem Renaissance. This time period, 1910’s to the mid 1930’s, was very successful and considered the Golden Age in African American history, performing arts, music and literature. At one point, like many, a group of people who had no power nor place in society are now changing the world one step at a time. This time period changed America using Langston Hughes, the Great Migration and the “New Negro” organization organized by Marcus Garvey.

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It addressed the issues that were faced by African Americans in the United States during that time . Langston Hughes' poem encouraged people not to take the issue of democracy lightly and to fight for their rights. He did not directly talk about race, but a huge part of his work had to do with life for African Americans in the United States. Hughes was often criticized for portraying life in such a negative fashion. However, his writing was politicized, and as such, he sought to produce poems with a message.

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Many artists, writers, and activists during the beginning of the 19th century, such as Hughes, fought to promote the rights of all African Americans. In addition to promoting rights and equality, Hughes and many other artists worked to expose African American culture and the reality of the hardships of the average African American. These activists led the way towards the African American Civil Rights movement between 1954-1968. Hughes inspired many leaders of the Civil Rights Movement whose main asperation was to destroy racial segregation and discrimination against African Americans. Langston Hughes’s compositions are inspired from his time during the Harlem Renaissance and his works reflect his radical ideas towards equality and

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African American’s Long Fight for Freedom and Equality Throughout the history of the United States, African Americans have been discriminated against, abused, killed, and enslaved. Many pieces of African American literature touch on their experiences from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement and on to the current movement, Black Lives Matter. Pieces like He Who Endures, a play written by Bill Harris, and the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” by Langston Hughes, are two examples. He Who Endures, set in the late 1840s to 1850s, mainly follows Frederick Douglass, John Brown, Henry Highland Garnet, and Shields Green, and their differing views on what steps the Abolitionists should take.

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He made no efforts to please White people, and he worked to be a strong advocate for building the traditions, culture, and art of African Americans. Hughes disliked that, “African Americans were embarrassed by their blackness and ashamed of being related to the people of their own race” (Horton). He was opposed to assimilation and encouraged Blacks to be bold and proud. He tried to lead by example and bravely published his poems, that proved how much Black people were taken advantage of. He also tried to broadcast his individuality in hopes of helping others to stay true to themselves.

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Langston Hughes and The Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was a defining moment in American cultural history, when Black writers, musicians, and artists emerged as prominent voices in the artistic and intellectual scene of the 1920s and 1930s. This movement was a response to the widespread racism and discrimination that African Americans faced in the U.S., particularly in the South. One of the most celebrated figures of the Harlem Renaissance was Langston Hughes, whose poetry captured the spirit and struggles of African American life. In this research paper, I will argue that Langston Hughes's poetry about African American identity changed over the course of the Harlem Renaissance from portraying Black pride to exploring the challenges

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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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This provides the reader with the ultimate message of the poem that Langston Hughes tries to get to the world. Langston Hughes claims that “There’s never been equality” in America, that it lacks freedom in this so-called homeland of the free (Hughes, Line 16). This goes back to Hughes' message on how African Americans had endured inequality by Hughes telling that they never had equality. The use of connotations in the poem allows readers to hold the feeling of appeal to the poem and to add more personal feelings to words. The topic that African Americans do not have equality affects readers by making them reflect on how lucky they do not have to deal with inequality.

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622 Words | 3 Pages

Of the four rivers that Hughes mentions, the Euphrates, Congo, and Nile are important and purposeful to the development of mankind. He alludes to the rivers in ancient times, where Blacks were free and contributed to the start of civilization. By doing so, Hughes presents historical equality between Blacks and their light-skinned counterparts. On the other hand, the Mississippi, while a lifeline of American culture for commercial and transportation uses, is associated with slavery with the mention of Abraham Lincoln. From this, we can draw the conclusion that Hughes aims to empower African Americans by tracing their ancient, rich, and powerful

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1409 Words | 6 Pages

Langston Hughes poems “Harlem” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” are two poems that have a deeper meaning than a reader may notice. Hughes 's poem “Harlem” incorporates the use of similes to make a reader focus on the point Hughes is trying to make. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Hughes shows how close he was to the rivers on a personal level. With those two main focuses highlighted throughout each poem, it creates an intriguing idea for a reader to comprehend. In these particular poems, Hughes’s use of an allusion, imagery, and symbolism in each poem paints a clear picture of what Hughes wants a reader to realize.

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1089 Words | 5 Pages

Langston Hughes was an American poem born in the early nineteen hundreds, who became known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He published many poems that brought light to the life of people of color in the twentieth century. There are three poems that the speakers are used to portray three major themes of each poem. Racism, the American Dream, and Hopes are all the major themes that Hughes uses to highlight the average life of a person of color. Theme for English B,” “Harlem,” and “Let America Be America Again” were three of Hughes’s poems that was selected to underline the themes.

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In the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Langton Hughes uses rhetorical devices such as allusion and imagery to develop the theme of the poem. Starting in stanzas four to six, Langston uses four very famous rivers to trace back on where it all began. Throughout these stanzas he develops allusion because he traces back on to history and state that everyone are historically equal. “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

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