Langston Hughes was born Feb. 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. He went to high school in Cleveland.Plain Dealer file
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Happy birthday, Langston Hughes.
The American Sultanbet literary great and Cleveland resident would have been 115 years old today. He was born Feb. 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri.
Hughes grew up on East 86th Street and is said to have developed his writing style in the third-floor attic of the colonial home. He lived there after his mother and stepfather left Cleveland – while Hughes, a teenager, was attending Central High School in 1916 and ’17.
He wrote for the school newspaper and started writing his earlier plays, poems and short stories while living in Cleveland.
He also attended classes at the influential Karamu House African-American theater and settlement house – in what turned out to be a long relationship with the theater. Founders Russell and Rowena Jelliffe helped the teenage Hughes hone his creative voice.
Hughes moved to New York and became a leading voice in the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s to 1930s. But he returned often, to have his works premiered at Karamu.
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