As a talented American author, Langston Hughes captured and integrated the realities and demands of Africa America in his work by utilizing the beauty, dignity, and heritage of blacks in America in the 1920s. Hughes was reared for a time by his grandmother in Kansas after his parents’ divorce. Influenced by the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Carl Sandburg, he began writing creatively while still a boy. Not only did Hughes suffer from poverty …showed first 75 words of 1001 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1001 total…compassion, social awareness, and literary talent made him one of the dominant voices in American literature and perhaps the single most influential black poet. (Berry 5) Bibliography Berry, S. Langston Hughes. Manakato: Creative Education, 1994. Chow, Belinda. A Research Brief: Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. 24 May 2000. An American Reader, U of Texas. 1996 . Poets of the Harlem Renaissance and After. 17 May 2000. The Academy of American Poets, Smithsonian Institute. 1997 . Rummel, Jack. Langston Hughes. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988.