The Negro And The Racial Mountain

The beginning of the 20th century many African Americans migrated from the south to the north in what we call today, the Great Migration. Many African Americans found themselves in a district of New York City called Harlem. The area known as Harlem matured into the hideaway of jazz and the blues where the African American artist emerged calling themselves the “New Negro.” The New Negro was the cornerstone for an era known today as the Harlem Renaissance (Barksdale 23). The Harlem Renaissance warranted the expression of the double consciousness of the African Americans, which was exposed by artists such as Langston Hughes. James Mercer Langston Hughes was an African American poet, journalist, playwright, and novelist whose works were

The Harlem Renaissance was like a dream come true for many African American writers. Even though there were several obstacles designed to hinder their progress, these pioneers diligently pressed forward, gaining their independence from what was expected of them and creating a world that allowed them to artistically express their African American pride. Although the Emancipation Proclamation was the torch that symbolized the beginning of change within the black community, the Harlem Renaissance was the gasoline that set the entire community in a blaze of glory. In this essay, I am going to discuss African American literature before and during the Harlem Renaissance and the impact Langston Hughes had on African American literature after the Harlem Renaissance.

Travel back in time several centuries ago to the 1900’s and imagine how different life would be – oil lamps/candles, outhouses or one toilet shared between several people, movies known as “flickers” and lasting no longer than 10 minutes, no television, ice boxes as opposed to refrigerators, baseball being the main sport that people followed as opposed to football, and unless you were a White male, your lifestyle was not filled with many opportunities or rights. With slavery being abolished not too long ago, discrimination and segregation was still widely accepted and practiced. Life was much different back then. Although people were heavily being judged for the color of their skin, a movement called the Harlem Renaissance had a major influence on people’s views on African-Americans across the United States. The Harlem Renaissance created a new Black cultural identity through literature, music, theater, art, and politics. One of the leading voices was Langston Hughes, a writer whom wrote realistic portrayals, both suffering and victories of African-American lifestyles through poetry, short stories, novels, and plays. Through short, effective, and expressive words, Langston Hughes’s poetry promoted African-American culture and also addressed the oppression and injustice of African-Americans.

Langston Hughes’, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” claimed that African Americans face racial and cultural challenges with finding their own identity in a society mainly influenced by Eurocentric American culture. More specifically, Hughes discussed the challenges of African American artists in embracing their black and remaining successful. Hughes recalled a conversation with a black poet, who stated that "I want to be a poet-not a Negro poet,” (Hughes, 964). Hughes interpreted his statement to mean that subconsciously he wanted to be white. He used this conversation and others to support his beliefs about African American identity and culture. He communicated that African Americans try to blend into the Eurocentric American culture,

Langston Hughes was a popular one of the most popular African American poets of the 20th Century. He was popular amongst the people as an artist and his work was very well known by many black people. A lot of black people regularly engaged in Langston Hughes’ work in “black” newspapers and they would be present in great numbers to hear him speak at other venues and black colleges and to say the least, purchase his books. One of the many reasons that Langston Hughes’ poetry gained popularity is due to the fact that without changing direction, his poetry addressed African American subjects in a way in which could be understood. Not only that, he engaged what was going on within their present, but also their collective memories of their past as

Harold Bloom notes that this movement brought an extraordinary creative activity in not only writing but also art and music. It redefined the expressions of African Americans and their customs. The Harlem Renaissance affected people then and still affects people today. It gives something to artists to write or even draw about and to show others the struggles they have gone through. Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem” is just one of the thousand outcomes of the Harlem Renaissance. They all, through their poems, art and music had a strong sense of racial pride. They wanted to gain equality, attack racism, and most of all celebrate African American culture (Bloom 113-127).

Hughes story, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”, veers away from the conventions of Du Bois’s essay as rather than focusing on the value of black art as a key in social movements, it involves black artists who would rather neglect their blackness and rather took on the culture of whites. The speaker claims he enjoys being white more than being an African American, and Hughes describes this as “the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America-this urge within the race towards whiteness…”. Much like Du Bois, Hughes writes about the “beauty” of Negro art, and aims to uplift the appeal of negro language and culture as he examines African American artists who stayed true to their roots and culture whose works are amongst those that are still heavily praised even decades later.

During the 1900’s many African Americans moved from the south to the north in an event called the Great Migration. Many of the South African, Americans migrated to a place called Harlem and this is where it all started. Harlem became the training ground for blues and jazz and gave birth to a young generation of Negro Artist, who referred to themselves as the New Negro. The New Negro was the base for an epoch called the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance allowed for the materialization of the double consciousness of the Negro race as demonstrated by artists such as Langston Hughes. During the peak of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes created poetry that was not only artistically and musically sound but also captured a blues essence giving life to a new mode of poetry as it portrayed the African American struggles with ego and society leading Langston Hughes to be one of the most influential icons of the Harlem Renaissance. One affair is for sure, Hughes consistent use of common themes allows them to be the very groundwork of the Harlem Renaissance.

Hughes had a very creative way of portraying the life of the African Americans colorfully in his literature. The life and works of Hughes contributed greatly to the renaissance. The works of Hughes appealed to all races; calling upon “Negros” to come together united by their struggles and appealing to the

Many writers during the Harlem Renaissance have used their writing to speak with a unified voice. But there were many African American writers and critics from the Harlem Renaissance that were very brutal and strict on the way that Langston Hughes depicted black life in the time era that viewed as unnecessarily exposing the “dirt” in their lives. Langston Hughes’s poem “Harlem” illustrates an image of human response to an unresolved dream. In “Harlem” Langston Hughes uses diction and stanza form to demonstrate how “dreams deferred” can discourage and antagonize the human

This paper will be about Langston Hughes and will discuss the topics hughes felt were important and his poems will be broken down to show you there was and is a deeper meaning behind everything. and all of his poems can be interpreted in many ways and can even be analyzed and can be relatable to all races.

Hughes wrote a manifesto called “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”, which was published in 1926, in the Nation. Here Hughes describes his views for a new direction in black literature and arts. He urges black intellectuals and artists to break away from the standards that the white society set for them. Hughes emphasized the theme that black is beautiful and that we should not be afraid to be ourselves. The first paragraph within “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” grabs the readers attention and reveals Hughes stand of keeping and taking pride of the black culture and uniqueness.

Langston Hughes, a Harlem Renaissance poet, grew up in a time of discrimination. He battled people telling him that he couldn’t make it as an author. He could not keep a job because he was black, and he wasn’t allowed to go certain places, but despite everything he became an influential poet. Hughes uses these struggles in his life to write poetry and show the life of a black person during the Harlem Renaissance.

According to Biography, James Mercer Langston Hughes is considered to be an African American poet who is college educated and comes from a middle-class family (Langston Hughes Biography). He attended college in New York City and became influential during the Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes Biography). Although Hughes was a talented writer, he faced some challenges early on and it was stated that his “early work was roundly criticized by many black intellectuals for portraying what they thought to be an unattractive view of black life” (Langston Hughes. American Poet). They believed that his work helps the spread the stereotypes of African Americans. “Hughes, more than any other black poet or writer, recorded faithfully the nuances of black life and its frustrations” (Langston Hughes. American Poet). Langston Hughes’s poems “The Negro Mother”, “Let America be America Again” and “The Weary Blues” were influenced by his life during the Harlem Renaissance and the racial inequality experienced in the late 1920s through the 1960s.

The development of jazz, blues and literature in harlem shine a big light on langston hughes the famous writer .Who was one of harlem 's famous writer for his poetry “ Harlem Dream Deferred”.Langston Hughes is broadly viewed as one of the best artists who ever strolled the earth. A number of his subjects concentrated on the issues that were going up against the race, fairness and