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birth
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri to Carolina Mercer Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes -
separation of his parents
His parents separated soon after his birth, and he was raised by his mother and grandmother. After his grandmother’s death, he and his mother moved to half a dozen cities before reaching Cleveland, where they settled. -
high school graduation
He graduated from high school in Cleveland Ohio, and spent the following year in Mexico with his father. -
his first poem
On his way to Mexico on the train, while thinking about his past and his future, Hughes wrote the famous poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." After arriving in Mexico, the tension between Hughes and his father was strong. Hughes wanted to be a writer; his father wanted him to be an engineer. -
collage career
Hughes entered Columbia University in the fall of 1921, a little more than a year after he had graduated from Central High School. Langston stayed in school there for only a year, meanwhile, he found Harlem. Hughes quickly became an integral part of the arts scene in Harlem. -
First volume of his autobiography
The Big Sea, the first volume of his autobiography, provides such a crucial first-person account of the era and its key players that much of what we know about the Harlem Renaissance we know from Langston Hughes's point of view. -
First poem to get him recognized
his poem "The Weary Blues" won first prize in the poetry section of the 1925 Opportunity magazine literary contest, Hughes's literary career was launched. His first volume of poetry, also titled The Weary Blues, appeared in 1926. -
experimenting with poetry
he uses the rhythms of African American music, particularly blues and jazz. This sets his poetry apart from that of other writers, and it allowed him to experiment with a very rhythmic free verse. -
Lincoln University
Hughes returned to school in 1926, this time to the historically black Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. He was supported by a patron of the arts, a wealthy woman in her seventies named Charlotte Osgood Mason. Mason directed Hughes's literary career, convincing him to write the novel Not Without Laughter. -
his turn to the political left
Hughes's life he turned to the political left and began to develop his interest in socialism. He published poetry in New Masses, a journal associated with the Communist Party, and in 1932 sailed to the Soviet Union with a group of young African Americans. -
his writing for theater
Later in the 1930s, Hughes's primary writing was for the theater. His drama about miscegenation and the South "Mulatto" became the longest running Broadway play written by an African American until Lorraine Hansberry's "A Raisin in the Sun" in 1958. -
world war II
during World War II, Hughes began writing a column for the African American newspaper, the Chicago Defender. he introduced the character of Jesse B. Semple, to his readers. This fictional everyman, while humorous, also allowed Hughes to discuss very serious racial issues. -
Money problems
Money was a nagging concern for Hughes throughout his life. While he managed to support himself as a writer, no small task, he was never financially secure, intel 1947 -
end of his career (death)
On May 22, 1967 Langston Hughes died after having had abdominal surgery. Hughes funeral, like his poetry, was all blues and jazz, the jazz pianist Randy Weston was called and asked to play for Hughes's funeral. Very little was said by way of eulogy, but the jazz and the blues were hot, and the final tribute to this writer so influenced by African American musical forms was fitting. -
new research
While it was long believed that Hughes was born in 1902, new research released in 2018 indicated that he might have been born the previous year.