Rearing Young Langston In Lawrence

Langston Hughes was one of the most important poets of the twentieth century. He was known as the poet laureate of black life and culture. His boyhood years, from 1903 to 1915, were lived in Lawrence, Kansas. Langston credits his Lawrence upbringing with having deeply influenced his writings. In 2004, his boyhood home in Lawrence was named a national poetry landmark by the Academy of American Poets.

The abject loneliness, poverty, and unhappiness of Langston's childhood years in Lawrence hav...