Langston Hughes

Paper Summary:

This paper studies Langston Hughes and his many contributions to society. It includes excerpts and an analysis of his poems "The Negro Artist", "Racial Mountain" and "In Dream Boogie". It examines his philosophy on African-Americans living in the 20th century. It details his life and the progress he has made for African-Americans.

From the Paper:

"Langston Hughes felt that African Americans should be able to live in freedom in the 20th Century. He saw African Americans as a vibrant race, full of live, compassion, and love. He didn't approve of complacent people. Because Hughes was at the center of the Harlem Renaissance, he naturally felt that African Americans should speak up and demand what they want. He felt that African Americans should be proud of their heritage they shouldn't try to be something that they are not. They shouldn't try to fit into the white culture. More specifically, they should embrace their heritage and love themselves as described in the following:
And so the word white comes to be unconsciously a symbol of all the virtues. It holds for the children beauty, morality, and money. The whisper of "I want to be white" runs silently through their minds. This young poet's home is, I believe, a fairly typical home of the colored middle class. One sees immediately how difficult it would be for an artist born in such a home to interest himself in interpreting the beauty of his own people. He is never taught to see that beauty. He is taught rather not to see it, or if he does, to be ashamed of it when it is not according to Caucasian patterns (Hughes)."

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