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was born in Joplin, Missouri into an abolitionist family. He was the grandson of Charles Henry Langston. His brother was John Mercer Langston, who was the the first Black American to be elected to public office in 1855. Hughes attended Central High School in Clev ....

Middle of Essay
.... 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, not a Black poet, which to Hughes meant he subconsciously wanted to write like a white 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 ....