The New York City neighborhood of Harlem became a major cultural center for African Americans. Black artists, musicians, and writers based in Harlem created a social and artistic community, producing major works and challenging barriers created by Jim Crow.
Langston Hughes (1902–1967) was a prominent figure of the Harlem Renaissance whose poetry, plays, essays, and novels addressed various aspects of black culture and experience. Born in Joplin, Missouri, Hughes was raise in the Midwest by his mother and grandmother. In 1921, he enrolled at Columbia University just after his first published poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” appeared in The Crisis. During the 1920s, Hughes spent time writing abroad and in Harlem. He befriended other major African American writers and artists of the...