Langston Hughes

Harlem Renaissance Pioneer (b. 1901 - d. 1967)

This Harlem Renaissance pioneer was a descendent of African-Americans, Native-Americans, Euro-Americans, Kentucky slave owners and abolitionists. All this history, Langston Hughes expressed in wondrous prose and verse. Hughes was prolific – sixteen poetry collections, eleven novel/short story collections, six non-fiction books, twelve major plays and eight children’s books. His works challenged society and brought to light the reality, and hope, of the black community. Hughes’s remains are buried in Harlem under his words: “My soul has grown deep like the rivers."