Langston Hughes was an American poet and social activist, born and raised in Joplin, Mississippi. Langston Hughes was a prominent leader in the Harlem Renaissance, an artistic movement in the 1920s that consisted of new African-American cultural expressions. Centered in Harlem, a neighborhood in New York City, the Harlem Renaissance also inspired Black writers throughout America and the African and Caribbean colonies.
Langston Hughes used his novels, poems, and plays to display racial tensions and celebrate the lives of African Americans during the 1920s. Hughes's 1926 essay, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain," brought attention to the criticism of Black artists by white culture, as well as by other Black citizens who wanted above all to assimilate to whiteness.
"The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" was first published in The Nation, a magazine founded by abolitionists in 1865. In the essay, Hughes recalls a young poet he once met that stated he wanted to be "a poet—not a Negro poet" (1). Hughes goes on to ask black artists to express themselves and be proud of their culture, instead of imitating white artists and absorbing their culture. The essay is often interpreted as a mission statement for the Harlem Renaissance, which illustrated the beauty of Black culture and the important innovations made by young Black artists.
