Langston Hughes photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1936.
We are already in February, the second month of the year, which means it’s Black History Month, a time when we celebrate the achievements of black folk here in America. Every year, I take the opportunity to feature a few famous African American authors, and as I was about to make my pick, I came across a list of famous Black authors born in February.
One of them is Langston Hughes, famous playwright, novelist, poet, and social activist with whom I share the same birth date – Feb. 1. This illustrious scribe was born of mixed heritage – his paternal great-grandfathers were of European descent, while his maternal great-grandmothers were African American – Hughes took pride in his African-American identity and stressed this in his work.
Langston’s early years
While in high school in Cleveland, Ohio, Hughes wrote for the school newspaper, edited the yearbook, and began to write short stories, poetry, and dramatic plays. He wrote his first piece of jazz poetry — a literary art form in which the poet responds and writes about jazz — “When Sue Wears Red” while still in high school.
Hughes’ first book of poetry “The Weary Blues” (1926) features the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” which became a signature poem. In 1930, he won the Harmon Gold Medal for Literature for his first novel, Not Without Laughter. Hughes went on to write many short stories, novels, essays, works for children, autobiographies, and plays, and later formed a theater troupe in Los Angeles.
Langston’s influence on young black writers
Although a major influence during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Hughes was highly critical of other Renaissance men such as W.E.B Du Bois and others who, he felt, were too accommodating of Eurocentric values and culture. In addition to his literary prowess, Hughes’s racial consciousness inspired and united black writers not only in America but around the globe. He had a major influence on writers such as Jacques Roumain, Nicolás Guillén, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and Aimé Césaire. Hughes was greatly admired by young black writers whom he discovered and introduced to the publishing world. One such example is Alice Walker author of The Color Purple, who was also born in February.
Of course, I don’t believe in astrology, but I’ve heard it said that people born in February are creative, and this list certainly seems to bear this out. So, let’s take a look at some of the better-known Black authors and some of my favorites born in February :
Black authors born in February
- Feb. 1 – Langston Hughes, Angela Joseph
- Feb, 2 – Joseph S Cotter – one of the earliest African-American playwrights to be published.
- Feb. 6 – Bob Marley
- Feb. 9 – Alice Walker
- Feb. 12 – Jacqueline Woodson
- Feb. 14 – Frederick Douglass
- Feb. 15 – Beverly Jenkins, Elizabeth Acevedo
- Feb. 18 – Audre Lorde, Bebe Moore Campbell, Elizabeth Nunez, and Toni Morrison
- Feb. 20 – Trevor Noah
- Feb- 23 – W.E.B. Dubois
It would not be fitting for me to end this article without leaving you with a few lines from The Negro Mother, a poem by Langston Hughes, which I find very touching and which, I believe, is so pertinent to these times.
Excerpt from The Negro Mother
All you dark children in the world out there,
Remember my sweat, my pain, my despair.
Remember my years, heavy with sorrow –
And make of those years a torch for tomorrow.
Make of my pass a road to the light
Out of the darkness, the ignorance, the night.
Lift high my banner out of the dust.
Stand like free men supporting my trust.
Believe in the right, let none push you back.
Remember the whip and the slaver’s track.
Angela is the author of the Egypt series, Love, Lies, and Grace, and her newest release Making Music Together.
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