James Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902, the only child of James and Carrie Hughes to survive infancy. Another son born two years earlier had died.

Carrie Hughes came from a family that had been prominent in the abolitionist movement. A lover of books and plays, she had once dreamed of becoming a professional actress. Instead, like so many black women of her time, she had to settle for the jobs she could find, working as a stenographer and a waitress.

James Hughes wasn’t able to pursue his professional goals. Hardworking and ambitious, he earned a law degree, but racism made it impossible to sustain his practice. Frustrated by limited o

In the 1940s, Hughes became disillusioned with radical politics. His desire to make money separated Hughes from radical politics. Though he became less radical in some of his political views, he continued to call for an end to racism and segregation in America.

help pay his tuition and living expenses at Columbia. His sojourn at Columbia was short lived. By the end of his freshman year, Hughes wanted nothing more to do with the university.

proved invaluable to his development both as a poet and as a person.

A jazz trio played at his funeral, which was attended by nearly three hundred writers, musicians, and black political leaders. Afterward, a group of Hughes’s closest friends recited on of his best-known poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” It was a moving tribute to the man who had inspired so many.

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