Born today, February 1, 1902, Hughes moved to Cleveland in 1916 and attended Central High School where his writing was encouraged by his teachers and others and where his first works appeared.
One of Hughes’ signature poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers“, was first published in 1921 and appeared in the NAACP’s official journal, The Crisis.
The Ohio Center for the Book encourages you to explore Hughes’ work by visiting the following online resources:
- His Wikipedia article has some wonderful resources in its External Links section as well as a solid biographical and literary information.
- His Poetry Foundation page has a good article as well as links to his poetry and prose.
- Internet Archive makes available a wide array of Hughes’ work freely-available online.
- The Library of Congress has posted a short (<20 minutes) video on Langston Hughes and His Poetry.
- The National Endowment for the Humanities’ EDSITEment! site has a Teacher’s Guide for The Works of Langston Hughes.
- PBS’s Meet The Past has a 26-minute program where actor Charles Everett Pace portrays Langston Hughes in an interview format.