The blindness to this problem and the ignorance of those that contributed to it is what keeps racism thriving. Hughes, Hurston, and DuBois amiably took a stand for their heritage and made it a priority to educate these inexperienced people who did not understand the predominance of racial lines. .
Langston Hughes was, and still is, an extremely influential poet. Hughes' poetry mirrors the civilization of African-Americans. He strived to capture the dominant oral and improvisatory traditions of black culture in written form and he achieved just that (Baym 2224). Much of his poetry depicts the struggles, poverty, inequality, etc. of the African-American people ("Langston-). In his poem, "Mother to Son-, Hughes beautifully illustrated a mother talking to her son of the hardships that she has had to endure as a black woman. The second line in the poem sums up the destitution that the mother has had to deal with. Hughes wrote the poem from the mother's point of view. In the poem the mother states, "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair- (Baym 2226). Hughes was able to capture the innocence of a child and compare it to the strenuous climb for acceptance that the mother and black people so often had to face. Throughout the poem he painted the heartbreaking picture of a mother that supports her son and wants him to surpass the exile that she's has been put through. Because of his use of such nave characters, Hughes was able to play on the readers' emotions and inspire them to bring an end to their discrimination. His poetry opened the eyes of the reader to the numerous disadvantages that many black people had suffered through and are still trying to overcome ("Langston-).
Zora Neale Hurston was also a very prominent writer for the African-American culture during the Harlem Renaissance. She was considered to be the most important African American woman who wrote before World War II (Baym 2082).
