Historical documents. What clues can you gather about Langston Hughes, the time, place, players, and culture?
The Weary Blues
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Poems from Langston Hughes's book The Weary Blues.
"A Dream Deferred"
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This poem is also known as "Harlem." You might recognize the opening line, "What happens to a dream deferred?"
"The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain"
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Hughes's noteworthy 1926 essay.
"The Blues I'm Playing"
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A short story by Hughes.
"The Night Funeral in Harlem"
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A Hughes poem.
"Let America Be America Again"
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Hughes's poem, written in 1938 and first published in Esquire.
Hughes on Scottsboro
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A series of poems Hughes wrote about the trial of the Scottsboro Boys of Alabama.
Obituary
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Hughes's 1967 obituary in The New York Times.
Spanish Civil War Broadside
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An image of one of Hughes's dispatches from the Spanish Civil War.
Langston Hughes on the IRT
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This great story about commuters' reaction to Hughes's poem "Luck," which was posted on the New York subway, highlights the many different emotions a poem can evoke.