Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was born in Joplin, Missouri. He was the second child of school teacher Carrie (Caroline) Mercer Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes (1871–1934). Langston Hughes grew up in a series of Midwestern small towns. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form of jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance but his poems also include about common human experiences. His works are influenced greatly the poetry of Walt Whitman and Carl Sandburg.
