How Did Langston Hughes Influence The Harlem Renaissance

Asa Philip Randolph once said: “Freedom is never given; it is won.” During the Harlem Renaissance, African Americans certainly lost the fight against the white people for freedom and racial equality. Although participating in numerous acts of protest for their civil rights, the overpowering issue of racism in society denied the colored people their liberty as human beings. Life for black people seemed to be a broken record; one full of lost hope, withered dreams, and ungranted wishes. Langston Hughes, a famous American poet and social activist, lived a childhood which had a great influence on his style of poetry and the messages he spread through his literature. In Harlem, New York, Langston Hughes was known for being a well-spoken social
Literature played a major role in the Renaissance, inspiring many black writers to travel up north and focus their work on life in the ghettos and the fight for racial equality ("Langston Hughes", DISCovering Authors, Gale, Detroit, 2003.). Music was an important aspect of the Renaissance as well. Many black authors incorporated jazz into their poetry to express the African Americans’ interest in this style of music ("Langston Hughes", DISCovering Authors, Gale, Detroit, 2003.). Although the Harlem Renaissance did not break the rigid barrier between the rights of white people versus the colored, it did,in fact, decrease the amount of tension between the two races and give blacks a particular pride in their own
When he was young, Hughes’s life consisted of traveling across the country with his mother as she looked for a job opportunity. There were many cases in which Hughes had to live with relatives or close friends because his mom was tied up in finding a job and could not commit to taking care of her son for the time being. Later in his childhood, when Hughes was old enough to be employed, him and his mom worked together to support themselves financially ("Langston Hughes"- EXPLORING Short Stories, Gale, Detroit, 2003.). In other words, Langston Hughes knew exactly what it was like to grow up poverty-stricken. His poem, Mother to Son, perfectly relates to how the issue of poverty influenced his poetry. This piece of literature portrays a meaningful conversation between a mother and her son, in which the mother tells her child that he will have to learn how to overcome obstacles in his life just as she once had and still does to this day. It is highly likely that Langston and his mother, Carrie, had this type of conversation when he was growing up due to their substandard living