"Langston Hughes Inspired as a Child in Kansas"

A Moment in Time

Kansas Historical Society

A monthly series from the Kansas Historical Society

Young Langston Hughes curled into his grandmother's lap as she wrapped him with a bullet-riddled shawl. He stroked the tattered shawl and listened as Grandmother Langston told how her first husband, Sheridan Leary, had gone to Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in 1859. Leary, a freeman, died at John Brown's side, fighting for the freedom of others, leaving the shawl behind as a symbol of his commitment to the cause.

Through Grandmother Langston's stories Hughes learned to be courageous and to fight for his beliefs. She taught him to judge a man by his actions, not by the color of his skin, and that all people deserved to be free.

Born in 1902, Hughes spent his early years living with his mother or grandmother in Lawrence and Topeka. His childhood was a lonely time and he fought the loneliness by writing poetry. One of his early poems, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," was published by Crisis magazine when Hughes was nineteen.

Hughes traveled the world and wrote of his experiences. For a time he worked on a film project in the Soviet Union and wrote for a soviet newspaper. In 1937 he covered news from the Spanish Civil War for the American press.

Words became his weapons as he developed his poems and essays, many were published during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. Hughes created the fictional character of Jesse B. Semple, who became known to readers of the Chicago Defender in a series of short stories. Semple became a voice for the frustrations and triumphs of African Americans in the early 1940s through his common language and simple ways. The social commentary Semple espoused earned Hughes the reputation of a rebel.

Hughes shared his poetry with the common man as he traveled the country. In later years he served as cultural emissary for the United States to Europe and Africa. "An artist," Hughes said, "must always be free to choose what he does, certainly, but must also never be afraid to do what he might choose."

Langston Hughes died in 1967. His Kansas heritage and his grandmother's stories helped shape the words he shared with the world.