See Also:
Beginning of a FAMOUS Hero: The Martin Luther King Jr. Story.
Life Lesson #47 – Take Charge of Your Life.
Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri in 1902, but all through his childhood, he and his mother lived in a lot of different cities. Langston was a good student in school, and while he enjoyed many things, he loved writing poetry the most. He began writing seriously when he was in the eighth grade, so by the time he was a young man, he was very, very good at it.
Some of Langston’s poems were happy, and some were sad, but all of his poems were about the hard life that black people faced in the early nineteen-hundreds. Eventually, Langston moved to Harlem, a part of New York City where only black people lived. He loved Harlem very much and wrote a lot about it. He loved the people; he loved their music, and all their special talents. Over time, people like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and many others had helped provide opportunities for the people in places like Harlem, and others all over the country who had been treated so badly. Many used those opportunities to make better lives for themselves and their families. But many turned to drugs and fighting, thinking that would give them a better life. Langston knew those things would ruin lives, not make them better, so he wrote about that, too. Langston Hughes also wrote many books, and even plays that showed his love for people and how they lived. He became very famous, and he became a HERO to people everywhere who cared about how we treat each other and how we all try to make better lives for our families and our neighbors. Yes, that little boy named Langston—Langston Hughes, who loved writing so much grew up to be a very special HERO.
– Jim Lord