Langston Hughes was born in 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. Hughes went to high school in Ohio and attended Lincoln University.
He credits his inspiration to Vachel Lindsey, a fellow writer and critic. Hughes's first book of poems was published in 1926. This book, The Weary Blues, was soon followed by several others. During the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes became extremely popular, especially in poetry and drama. He even had a play on Broadway, Mulatto, which ran from 1935 until 1937.
Hughes excelled in every form of literature. His next achievement was in short stories. Ways of White Folks was published in 1934 as a collection of short stories. Throughout his life, Hughes published ten volumes of poetry and produced dramas and operas, sixty short stories, and anthologies. It is obvious why Hughes is known as "Poet Laureate of the Negro race." Langston Hughes helped to bring about great attention to Black Americans in the 1930s.