Langston learned to endure the hardships of prejudice without surrendering his dignity or pride. .
When Langston was twelve years old his grandmother died, and he went to live with some family and friends. When he was thirteen, his mother finally sent for him to join her in Lincoln, Missouri, where he found he had a new family. .
Academically and socially, Langston did well in Lincoln, The summer before he started high school, Langston and his family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. The four years at Cleveland's Central High School .
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proved invaluable to his development both as a poet and as a person. .
Though the school was predominately white-Hughes was one of the only ten black students in his class-racial problems were rare. Central H. S. provided Langston with more than a textbook education. He was a member of the students council and the French club, served as editor of the yearbook, and ran on the school's championship track team. He had a passion for politics. Langston got his first exposure to socialist and communist ideologies from his white friends. This early introduction to radical politics had a tremendous impact on his development as a writer and a social activist. .
When Langston was a junior in high school, he received a letter from his father, the first in eleven years. His father had become a successful businessman in Mexico. Now he wanted Langston to join him for the summer. He pictured his father as a kind of strong, bronze cowboy, in a big Mexican hat. Reality didn't match Langston's fantasy. Though he loved Mexico, he hated his father, a mercenary that had no time to enjoy life. .
Langston wanted to go to college, and he needed financial help to do so. Unable to agree with his father on a degree program, Langston decided to study writing at Columbia University in New York City. Seeing his son's determination, Langston's father finally relented and agreed to .
