Struggle for Justice in Langston Hughes’s Poetry

James Mercer Langston Hughes is an outstanding African-American poet, novelist, journalist and social activist. He was one of the innovators who first used jazz in the form of great poetry. He was one of the inspirers for the unique American cultural movement known as the “Harlem Renaissance”. Langston was one of the first African-Americans who contributed a tremendous influence to black culture throughout the United States and took an active part in creating and developing Afro-American literature, the literature of struggle and hope (Bajaj 1).
During his forty years of successful writing carrier Hughes published seventeen books of poetry, seven short story collections, twenty-six dramatic works, two novels, and two autobiographies. The first poems Hughes wrote while still being a student, however, a true literary debut was in 1921, when the magazine “The Crisis” published one of his poems. In the early poems Hughes praised the spiritual and moral values of ordinary Americans, the writer widely used folklore, in particular, the tradition of Negro songs, spiritual and jazz music. Nonetheless, true recognition the author gained for his late lyrics characterized by synthesis of a variety of genres and focused on social aspects of interracial relationships and the struggle of African-American society for civil rights (Niemi 1). During the era of segregation and suppression Langston Hughes’s poems played a significant role in the inspiration of downtrodden African-American people provoking them to fight for equality and justice. In his work the author was actively addressing the concerns of black society relating to racial hatred, their conditions and struggle against white oppression.
The problematic topic reflecting on the problem between the two cultures was not chosen by Langston Hughes accidentally; his early life played an important role in selecting the direction of his work. The author was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1902 in a family of separated parents.

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