Beginning of Essay
“Born in Joplin, Missouri, James was born into an abolitionist family. He was the grandson of James Mercer Langston, the first Black American to be elected to public office in 1855. Hughes attended Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio, but began writing poe ....

Middle of Essay
.... “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain”. It spoke of Black writers and poets, “who would surrender racial pride in the name of a false integration”, where a talented Black writer would prefer to be considered a poet. Hughes argued, “no great poet has ever been afraid of being himself’. He wrote in this essay, “We younger Negro artists now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they aren’t, it doesn’t matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly too...If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn’t matt ....