Langston Hughes was a leader of the Harlem Renaissance of the
1920s. He was educated at Columbia University and Lincoln
University. While a student at Lincoln, he published his first
book of poetry, The Weary Blues (1926), as well as his landmark
essay, seen by many as a cornerstone document articulation of
the Harlem renaissance, “The Negro Artist and the Racial
Mountain.” Earlier that year, Freda Kirchwey, editor of the
Nation, mailed Hughes a proof of “The Negro-Art Hokum,” an essay
George Schuyler had written for the magazine, requesting a
counterstatement. Schuyler, editor of the African-American
newspaper The Pittsburgh Courier, questioned in his essay the
need for a separate African-American artistic and literary
tradition. Understanding a fellow African American poet’s stated
desire to be “a poet—not a Negro poet,” as that poet’s wish to
look away from his African American heritage and instead absorb
white culture, Hughes’ essay spoke to the concerns of the Harlem
Renaissance as it celebrated African