Langston Hughes Day to be celebrated Thursday
Jan. 30—A celebration of Joplin-born poet Langston Hughes will be held on his birthday Thursday.
The event is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at the Minnie Hackney Community Service Center, 110 S. Main St. A city proclamation honoring Hughes will be presented by Mayor Pro Tem Keenan Cortez. Refreshments will be served, and there will be a guest singer. The proclamation will establish Langston Hughes Day in the city every Feb. 1.
Hughes was born in 1901 in a house at 1046 S. Joplin Ave.
His parents, Caroline Langston and James Hughes, came to Joplin at the turn of the century and had two children. His older brother died in infancy and is buried at Fairview Cemetery in Joplin.
Hughes' family left Joplin in 1903 when he was a baby and relocated to Lawrence, Kansas, where he spent his early years with his grandmother, Mary Patterson Langston.
He set the course for his poetic art while he was in grade school when he began to write poetry. He was named "class poet" for the endeavor.
According to the proclamation, Hughes wrote his first piece of jazz poetry, "When Sue Wears Red."
He later was inspired to write "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" while traveling across the Mississippi River outside of St Louis. He earned a bachelor's degree in art at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
He moved to New York, where he became regarded as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance because of his vivid depictions of Black culture through his poetry and other works. He also wrote novels, essays and songs, and was a columnist, playwright and social activist.
On Oct. 11, 1958, Hughes returned to Joplin, where he met with members of the local Black community at what then was the Negro Service Center, now the Minnie Hackney Community Service Center.
Hughes recalled his visit to Joplin in a column written several years later in which he said his visit had given him a feeling of kinship with his birth town.
The proclamation also marks his work with the NAACP to help pass civil rights laws. Also noted in the proclamation is the formation of the Langston Hughes Cultural Society of Joplin in 2020 to honor Hughes.
