The Innate Genius Behind By Langston Hughes - 944 Words

Langston Hughes was a pioneer of African-American literature and while he wrote an abundance of short stories, essays and plays, he is most well-known for his poetry. The innate genius behind these poems was that he wrote about the everyday lives of American men and women using simple and easily relatable language to invoke a sense of grand importance that most people could understand. His poetry presents a commentary in which both races can begin to better understand one another and also critiques the relations of both races’ that was enveloping America at the time. Throughout the booming Roaring Twenties, the struggle against Jim Crow segregation and equality for minorities had yet to truly begin. Whites were still under the impression that they were the superior race. Taught to them by their ancestors; it wasn’t a belief, simply fact. Racial tensions were at an all-time high and the difference between the quality of living for blacks and whites was evident during this era. Therefore, to understand the relations between the races, one must first understand the major factors that eventually aspired many of Langston Hughes works. The Harlem Renaissance in the 1920’s and mid-1930’s, black culture prospered and grew exponentially becoming a literary, intellectual and artistic movement that kindled the flames of a new cultural identity for African-Americans mainly centering in Harlem which led many to refer to it as the â€Å"Negro capital of the world†. It was the first time in