Biography of Langston Hughes Langston Hughes was born on
February 1, 1902 as James Langston Hughes son of Carrie
Langston, a black school teacher and poet, and her husband James
Nathaniel Hughes, a white lawyer, as a member of an abolitionist
family in Joplin, Missouri while spending much of his childhood
in Lawrence, Kansas being raised by his grandmother, Mary
Langston, after his parents divorce. Langston's childhood was
not a happy one, however it later influenced much of his poetry.
In his adolescant years, Hughes lived with his mother, who had
remarried, in Lincoln, Illinios -- it was there that he
discovered books. He began writing poetry in the eighth grade
and was selected Class Poet. Hughes later attended Central High
School in Cleveland, Ohio. After his graduation in 1919, he
spent a year in Mexico with his father, often contemplating
suicide. He attended Columbia University to study engineering.
Langston's father paid the tuition encouraging him to pursue a
more practical career than writing. Soon