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Classroom · Grades 6–12

Langston Hughes

Hughes argued that the everyday speech, music, and struggles of ordinary Black Americans were worthy subjects for serious art, and that claim changed what American literature could be.

Lesson at a Glance

Grades
Grades 6–12
Time
One class period (20–40 minutes)
Standards
NCSS Themes 1 (Culture) and 2 (Time, Continuity, and Change); C3 D2.His.1.6-8, D2.His.4.9-12; Common Core RL.9-10.7
Reading
Langston Hughes (profile)

Big Idea

Hughes argued that the everyday speech, music, and struggles of ordinary Black Americans were worthy subjects for serious art, and that claim changed what American literature could be.

Before Class

Students read the profile of Langston Hughes, including the Key Dates and Sources.

Discussion Questions

  1. In “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” Hughes defended artists who drew on blues, jazz, and working-class life. Why might that choice have been controversial in 1926, even among Black critics?
  2. Hughes left Columbia after a year but graduated from Lincoln University in 1929. How might studying at a historically Black institution have shaped a writer like Hughes differently from a predominantly white university?
  3. Through the character of Jesse B. Semple, Hughes criticized segregation with humor. What can humor accomplish in political writing that a direct argument cannot?
  4. Hughes was compelled to testify before Senator McCarthy’s subcommittee in 1953 about his writings of the 1930s. What does that episode suggest about the risks writers faced for their political views during the Cold War?

Activity

Students page through the digitized June 1921 issue of The Crisis and locate “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” In pairs, they list the other kinds of content in the issue (news, editorials, advertisements, photographs) and discuss what the magazine’s contents reveal about its audience and purpose. Each pair then rereads the poem and writes a short paragraph explaining why an NAACP magazine might publish a poem about ancient rivers alongside news of civil rights, using the profile’s account of Hughes’s career as context. Close with a whole-class discussion of how publishing in The Crisis launched Hughes’s career (30–40 minutes).

Primary Sources

Cite this page
MLA
“Classroom lesson: Langston Hughes.” Black-History.com, 30 Sept. 2026, https://black-history.com/classroom/langston-hughes/.
APA
Black-History.com Editors. (2026, September 30). Classroom lesson: Langston Hughes. Black-History.com. https://black-history.com/classroom/langston-hughes/
Chicago
Black-History.com Editors. “Classroom lesson: Langston Hughes.” Black-History.com. September 30, 2026. https://black-history.com/classroom/langston-hughes/.
Editorial Note

By the Black-History.com editors. Last reviewed 30 September 2026. To suggest a primary source or a correction, write to editors@black-history.com or use our corrections form.

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