Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri on February 1, 1902 to a white lawyer and a black school teacher. He was raised in Lawrence, Kansas by his grandmother. Hughes is rated as one of the top poets of the 20th century, and certainly one of the greatest black poets in the history of the United States. His accomplishments include receiving the NAACP Spingarn Medal for distinguished achievements by an African American and being awarded an honorary doctorate from Howard University. His first poem was "The Negro Speaks of Rivers". He is considered the founder of the "Harlem Renaissance."
Read some of Langston Hughes' quotes below.
Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.
Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.
I swear to the Lord I still can't see why Democracy means everybody but me.
Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.
Beauty for some provides escape, who gain a happiness in eyeing the gorgeous buttocks of the ape or Autumn sunsets exquisitely dying.
Like a welcome summer rain, humor may suddenly cleanse and cool the earth, the air and you.
When peoples care for you and cry for you, they can straighten out your soul.
no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself.... We younger Negro artists now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they aren't, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too... If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow as strong as we know how and we stand on the top of the mountain, free within ourselves.