The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain

Born at the turn of the 20th century on February 1st, 1901, James Mercer Langston Hughes, who would later go by Langston Hughes, grew up in the Midwest, primarily raised by his grandmother. Both of Hughes’s parents were only somewhat present in his childhood; his grandmother, Mary Langston, was his maternal figure, and Hughes’s sense of racial pride is attributed to her upbringing. As a young man, Hughes attended Columbia University briefly before dropping out, citing racial prejudice. Hughes worked for a time on a ship, allowing him to travel and live for some time in West Africa and Europe, specifically England.

Upon his return from England, Hughes continued his education and earned a degree from Lincoln University; he then returned to New York, where he resided until his death. In Harlem, Hughes established himself as a popular poet, publishing multiple books of poetry as well as several novels and plays. Hughes was also well-known for his work as a writer for the Chicago Defender, a popular Black newspaper.

Throughout his writing life, Hughes was lauded as a poet who intentionally created a community for Black people to experience self-love and authentic expression. As a result of Hughes’s particular political perspective, he did not always agree with all of his contemporaries, but he tended to have a wide network of other Black writers and artists who considered him a model of Black authorship.

The essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” serves as a manifesto containing Hughes’s perspective as well as that of many of his peers. They believed that Black people needed to be authentically represented. Much of the essay reflects this belief, discussing the negative effects caused by the efforts of members of the Black middle-class who attempted to assimilate into White society. Though Hughes isn’t primarily known as an essayist, the text connects clearly to his broader body of work, both in its perspectives and in its references to the importance of representing Black people in honest and loving ways.

Hughes passed away on May 22, 1967, from complications related to prostate cancer. His home in Harlem is memorialized as a landmark and the street on which his home is located is now named “Langston Hughes Place.” Widely regarded as a paragon of literary artistry, Langston Hughes’s legacy as a Black poet, thinker, and writer have lived on in generations of authors and poets.