Langston Hughes Research Paper
In 1919, when Langston Hughes was seventeen years old, he spent the summer with his father, Jim Hughes, in Toluca, Mexico. Langston had not seen his father since he was a small child, and he was excited about making the trip. However, during this visit, no affectionate bond would develop between Langston and Jim. Jim Hughes was a cold, difficult man, who was driven by ambition to make money and achieve respect. He had moved to Mexico to avoid segregation and racial injustice in the United States. As the manager of an electric company and owner of a ranch and mines, Jim expressed contempt for black Americans who continued to submit to segregation and live in poverty.
Langston Hughes, 1933 (Library of Congress)
Langston was not ashamed of being a black American. He had already written poems celebrating his heritage. He felt connected to the oppressed "brown" people of the world and hated his father for mistreating his Mexican employees. Witnessing his father's tyranny made Langston sick enough to require hospitalization.
By the end of the summer, Langston was glad to return to school in the United States. On the journey to his mother's house in Cleveland, Ohio, he recognized he was back in his native land when a white man in the train's diner car refused to eat at the same table with him, and a fountain clerk in St. Louis refused to serve him a soft drink. He dealt with these slights the way he would his entire life: He turned away quietly. But Langston decided that instead of running away from the "color line" and hating himself for being black, like his father had, he would write about the real-life experiences of black people. He was determined "to write stories about Negroes, so true that people in faraway lands would read them."
James Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902, to Carolina (Carrie) Mercer Langston and James (Jim) Nathaniel Hughes. Carrie, self-indulgent and easygoing, was an impulsive spendthrift, while Jim,
Langston Hughes, 1933 (Library of Congress)
Langston was not ashamed of being a black American. He had already written poems celebrating his heritage. He felt connected to the oppressed "brown" people of the world and hated his father for mistreating his Mexican employees. Witnessing his father's tyranny made Langston sick enough to require hospitalization.
By the end of the summer, Langston was glad to return to school in the United States. On the journey to his mother's house in Cleveland, Ohio, he recognized he was back in his native land when a white man in the train's diner car refused to eat at the same table with him, and a fountain clerk in St. Louis refused to serve him a soft drink. He dealt with these slights the way he would his entire life: He turned away quietly. But Langston decided that instead of running away from the "color line" and hating himself for being black, like his father had, he would write about the real-life experiences of black people. He was determined "to write stories about Negroes, so true that people in faraway lands would read them."
James Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902, to Carolina (Carrie) Mercer Langston and James (Jim) Nathaniel Hughes. Carrie, self-indulgent and easygoing, was an impulsive spendthrift, while Jim,