Langston Hughes – 1902-1967

Hughes briefly attended Columbia University (1921–1922), lived for a time in Harlem—center of African-American urban culture—worked as a steward on an African-bound freighter, traveled widely, then worked as a busboy in a Washington, D.C., hotel. He saw the famous white poet Vachel Lindsay in the dining room, put a copy of his poems beside Lindsay’s plate, and read in the newspapers the next day that Lindsay had announced his discovery of a great “Negro busboy poet.” Hughes was given a scholarship to Lincoln University, and his literary career was launched. Through numerous works of poetry and prose—especially autobiography— Hughes became widely regarded as a representative voice of black America.