Profile of the Day: Langston Hughes

Poet and author Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. A leader of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City, Hughes’s writing depicted the life, experiences, and culture of African Americans in the U.S and addressed the racial issues in society.

Image: Langston Hughes / Library of Congress

Hughes was the son of James Nathaniel Hughes and Caroline Mercer Langston. His parents separated shortly after he was born and he was raised primarily by his maternal grandmother until her death in 1915. His grandmother was a very influential figure in his life and often told him stories about his family heritage, which instilled in him a lasting sense of racial pride.

He began writing poetry at a young age and published one of his best known poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” in the summer after graduating high school. Hughes was one of the earliest innovators of jazz poetry and a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance.

Hughes died on May 22, 1967 at the age of 65 from complications of prostate cancer. His ashes were interred beneath the entrance of the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. The spot features a line from his poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” It reads, “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”

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