hughes' life and work were an important part of the harlem renaissance of the 1920s, alongside those zora neale hurston, wallace thurman, countee cullen, richard bruce nugent, and aaron douglas, who together started a magazine "fire!! devoted to younger negro artists". hughes and these friends did not always agree with the ideas of some of the other african-american writers who were also part of the "harlem renaissance" because they thought their ideas were middle class and that they treated others who had darker skin, less education and less money with discrimination. all his life, hughes never forgot the lessons that he learned about poor and uneducated african-americans in the stories that his grandmother told.