Black History

Langston Hughes: Renaissance Poet and Writer

African American writers and poets have for years openly challenged cultural stigmas, creating classic works of literature. Many have earned Pulitzer and Nobel prizes, NAACP and Coretta Scott King Book awards among other honors.

Published

3 years ago

September 5, 2021

Christy Price

Langston Hughes/Photo courtesy of Tamara Shiloh

Among these literary giants stands James Mercer Langston Hughes (1902–1967), whose poetry and other writings made him a leading figure in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Born in Joplin, Mo., Langston Hughes’s parents separated shortly after he was born. His father relocated to Mexico, and the child was raised by his mother and grandmother. After his grandmother died, he and his mother eventually settled in Cleveland.

Hughes began experimenting with poetry during grammar school. His work was so well liked that he was elected class poet. He stated that “in retrospect,” he thought it was because of the stereotype about African Americans “having rhythm.”

It was summer after he graduated from high school that he penned “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” Published in The Crisis (1921), a piece that brought him considerable attention and put it his work on the path to being noticed.

That same year Hughes enrolled in New York City’s Columbia College. He left a year later, citing “racial prejudice among students and teachers” as one of the reasons. He describes his first interaction at Columbia as “largely isolating and exclusionary.” In his autobiography Big Sea, he opens a chapter with “I didn’t like Columbia.”

He would later build a relationship with the university––after he became a prominent writer.

After Columbia, Hughes remained in Harlem while working and continuing to write. In 1925, he won an Opportunity magazine poetry prize. Writer Carl Van Vechten then introduced Hughes’s poetry to the publisher Alfred A. Knopf.

“The Weary Blues “was published in 1926.

Hughes also spent time in Washington, D.C., where he worked as a hotel busboy. As poet Vachel Lindsay sat in the hotel’s dining room, Hughes placed three of his own poems beside Lindsay’s plate. The following day, several newspapers reported that Lindsay had “discovered” an African-American busboy poet. Later that year, Hughes received a scholarship to Lincoln University.

He also received the Witter Bynner Undergraduate Poetry Award and published “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” in The Nation.

In 1926, Hughes published a second collection of poetry, “Fine Clothes to the Jew.” It faced great criticism from the Black press. By 1929, he had helped launch the influential magazine Fire!! His first prose volume, “Not Without Laughter” was published in 1930. He traveled in the American South in 1931, then to the Soviet Union, Haiti, Japan, and other countries; and served as a newspaper correspondent (1937) during the Spanish Civil War.

Hughes published countless other works during the 1950s and 1960s, including several books in his series “Simple.” He won several awards including the Anisfeld-Wolfe Award for best book on racial relations, the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP, the Golden Harmon Award and the Guggenheim Fellowship.

Hughes continued writing until he died in 1967.

Sources: https://www.biography.com/writer/langston-hughes
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Langston-Hughes
https://allpoetry.com/Langston-Hughes

Christy Price

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Black History

From Louisville to the Olympics: The Legacy of William DeHart Hubbard

William DeHart Hubbard, born on November 25, 1903, in Cincinnati, Ohio, was a trailblazing figure in American sports history. Hubbard grew up in Cincinnati. While attending Walnut Hills High School he excelled in academics and athletics. This earned him a scholarship to the University of Michigan in 1921, where he studied in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. In college, he quickly made a name for himself as an exceptional track and field athlete.

Published

1 week ago

October 1, 2024

Oakland Post

William DeHart Hubbard made history in 1924 when Hubbard made Olympic history by winning the Gold Medal in the long jump. Public Domain.

By Tamara Shiloh

William DeHart Hubbard, born on November 25, 1903, in Cincinnati, Ohio, was a trailblazing figure in American sports history.

Hubbard grew up in Cincinnati. While attending Walnut Hills High School he excelled in academics and athletics. This earned him a scholarship to the University of Michigan in 1921, where he studied in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. In college, he quickly made a name for himself as an exceptional track and field athlete.

Hubbard was the only African American on the school’s track team; he was also the first African American varsity track letterman at the university. In his college career, Hubbard won several meets including being a three-time National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) champion, eight-time Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) champion, and seven-time Big Ten Conference champion in track and field. His 1925 outdoor long jump of 25 feet 10¹⁄₂ inches stood as the Michigan Wolverines team record until 1980, and it is still second. His 1925 jump of 25 feet 3.5 inches stood as a Big Ten Championships record until Jesse Owens broke it in 1935 with what is now the current record of 26 feet 8.25 inches.

In 1924, he was selected to represent the United States at the Paris Summer Olympics.

Competing against some of the best athletes in the world, Hubbard made history by winning the gold medal in the long jump by jumping 24 feet 5.5 inches. This victory made him the first African American to win an individual gold medal in the history of the modern Olympic Games.

In 1925, Hubbard broke the long jump world record with a leap of 25 feet 10⁷⁄₈ inches at the NCAA championships. In 1927, he bettered that with a jump of 26 feet 2.25 inches — which would have been the first ever over 26 feet — but meet officials disallowed it, claiming that the take-off board was an inch higher than the surface of the landing pit. He also competed in the hurdles at the 1926 AAU championships. He graduated with honors in 1927.

He specialized in the long jump, a sport that would soon bring him international fame.

Hubbard’s Olympic success was not just a personal triumph but a milestone for African Americans in sports. His victory challenged the prevailing stereotypes of the time and inspired a generation of Black athletes to pursue their dreams in the face of adversity.

After his Olympic success, he continued to excel in track and field. He set an additional world record in 1925 with a jump of 25 feet 10.75 inches, which stood for several years. His accomplishments were not limited to athletics, as he also became involved in civic and business endeavors after his graduation from the University of Michigan in 1927.

Following his athletic career, Hubbard returned to his hometown of Cincinnati, where he took on various roles serving his community and the progress of African Americans. He worked as a manager for the Department of Colored Work for the Cincinnati Public Recreation Commission and later became a race relations adviser for the Federal Housing Administration.

Hubbard passed away on June 23, 1976. As the first African American to win an individual Gold Medal in the Olympics, he not only paved the way for future generations of athletes but also demonstrated the profound impact that sports can have on societal change.