While Langston Hughes is noted for his contributions and writings for the Harlem Renaissance, the District played a large role in his road to his notoriety as a writer and poet.
“The Selected Letters of Langston Hughes” edited by Arnold Rampersad, David Roessel, and with the assistance of Christa Frantato, reveals scores of letters written by Hughes to friends throughout his lifetime. The book provides insight into Hughes’ life in the nation’s capital.
Hughes Before D.C.
Hughes was born in 1901 in Joplin, Missouri, and proceeded to live in a series of small Midwestern towns before graduating from high school in 1920 in Cleveland. He started writing in high school and continued at Columbia University. He also wrote while traveling in Mexico, Europe, and West Africa before coming to the District in November 1924 to stay with his mother.
Life in the District
In a Dec. 14, 1924, letter to Harold Jackman, a Black arts curator of the Harlem Renaissance, he wrote about living in the District.
“I continue to work low-wage jobs while I explore the blues, jazz and other African American forms of verse,” he said.
In the 1924 letter, Hughes mentions working in advertising on commission for a Black newspaper, the Washington Sentinel briefly.
A Jan. 13, 1925, letter to Jackman revealed new employment.
“I have a new job with Associated Publishers,” Hughes said. He had a position as a personal assistant to Carter G. Woodson, the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), and editor of the Journal of Negro History. Hughes said he liked the job.
“I think I will be unboxed here forever,” he said.
An Oct. 9, 1925, letter to photographer and writer Carl Van Vechten reported Hughes talking about his new job as a busboy at the Wardman Park Hotel, saying “it is a new job with longer hours, but I have the whole afternoon off.”
In December 1925, famed poet Vachel Lindsay visited the District and stayed at the Wardman Park Hotel. While staying there, Hughes managed to slip three of his poems to Lindsay. So impressed, Lindsay publicly declared he discovered “a poet as a busboy” at the hotel.”
District-based restaurant and bar owner Andy Shallal has consistently said Lindsay’s affirmation of Hughes served as a reason for the name of his chain, Busboys & Poets.
Hughes in D.C. in Later Years
After receiving recognition from Lindsay, doors opened for Hughes as a poet and writer. He became internationally renowned for his writing and his progressive views on civil rights and other social issues.
His writing was often controversial, dealing with subjects many didn’t wish to discuss.
In 1953, Hughes had a short stay in the District when he was subpoenaed by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations by U.S. Sen. Joe McCarthy on whether they had Communist leanings. In a March 28, 1953, letter to Claude Barnett, he said he told the committee that he had never been a member of the Communist Party. In a letter a day later, he praised District civil rights attorney Frank D. Reeves “for the hospitality of his house during his stay in D.C.”
In 1963, Hughes came to the District to receive an honorary doctorate degree from Howard University.
He died due to complications of prostate cancer on March 22, 1967, in New York City.