His father left the family soon after Langston’s birth, and his mother traveled looking for work, so his maternal grandmother primarily raised him in Lawrence, Kansas. After Hughes’ grandmother died, he moved with his mother in Cleveland, Ohio, until he graduated high school. Langston enrolled at Columbia University in 1921, just as the Harlem Renaissance was coalescing. The Black cultural movement would become a period of outstanding artistic and literary achievement by Black artists such as Hughes, Wallace Thurman, Countee Cullen, Arna Bontemps, and Zora Neal Hurston. These creatives experimented with themes of race, class, gender, and sexuality in their work and lives that had previously been taboo.

Contributor: Dr. Anthony Ratcliff
@blkintellectual