Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was an African-American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. Hughes was a member of an abolitionist family. He was the great-great-grandson of Charles Henry Langston, brother of John Mercer Langston, who was the first Black American to be elected to public office, in 1855. The son of Carrie Langston Hughes (a teacher) and her husband, James Nathaniel Hughes, Langston Hughes was born James Mercer Langston Hughes in Joplin, Missouri. James Hughes, who studied as a lawyer but was denied permission by an all-white examining board in Oklahoma, left his family and the United States. James Hughes left for Cuba, then Mexico, as a consequence of the enduring racism in the United States, there he became a wealthy businessman. Hughes's parents divorced soon thereafter . Because his father immigrated to Mexico and his mother was often away, Hughes was reared in Lawrence, Kansas, by his grandmother Mary Langston, wh...
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