Langston Hughes and the *Chicago Defender*

Langston Hughes and the *Chicago Defender* PDF Author: Langston Hughes
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 0252054598
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284

Book Description
Langston Hughes is well known as a poet, playwright, novelist, social activist, communist sympathizer, and brilliant member of the Harlem Renaissance. He has been referred to as the "Dean of Black Letters" and the "poet low-rate of Harlem." But it was as a columnist for the famous African-American newspaper the Chicago Defender that Hughes chronicled the hopes and despair of his people. For twenty years, he wrote forcefully about international race relations, Jim Crow, the South, white supremacy, imperialism and fascism, segregation in the armed forces, the Soviet Union and communism, and African-American art and culture. None of the racial hypocrisies of American life escaped his searing, ironic prose. This is the first collection of Hughes's nonfiction journalistic writings. For readers new to Hughes, it is an excellent introduction; for those familiar with him, it gives new insights into his poems and fiction.

Chicago Defender

Chicago Defender PDF Author: Myiti Sengstacke Rice
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 073856124X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 130

Book Description
The history of the Chicago Defender, a leading newspaper in the 1920s which served as a platform for African Americans to voice their opinions on race, oppression, and dreams of a better future.

The Defender

The Defender PDF Author: Ethan Michaeli
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547560877
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 884

Book Description
This “extraordinary history” of the influential black newspaper is “deeply researched, elegantly written [and] a towering achievement” (Brent Staples, New York Times Book Review). In 1905, Robert S. Abbott started printing The Chicago Defender, a newspaper dedicated to condemning Jim Crow and encouraging African Americans living in the South to join the Great Migration. Smuggling hundreds of thousands of copies into the most isolated communities in the segregated South, Abbott gave voice to the voiceless, galvanized the electoral power of black America, and became one of the first black millionaires in the process. His successor wielded the newspaper’s clout to elect mayors and presidents, including Harry S. Truman and John F. Kennedy, who would have lost in 1960 if not for The Defender’s support. Drawing on dozens of interviews and extensive archival research, Ethan Michaeli constructs a revelatory narrative of journalism and race in America, bringing to life the reporters who braved lynch mobs and policemen’s clubs to do their jobs, from the age of Teddy Roosevelt to the age of Barack Obama. “[This] epic, meticulously detailed account not only reminds its readers that newspapers matter, but so do black lives, past and present.” —USA Today

The Return of Simple

The Return of Simple PDF Author: Langston Hughes
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1429924098
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 252

Book Description
Jesse B. Simple, Simple to his fans, made weekly appearances beginning in 1943 in Langston Hughes' column in the Chicago Defender. Simple may have shared his readers feelings of loss and dispossession, but he also cheered them on with his wonderful wit and passion for life.

The Best of Simple

The Best of Simple PDF Author: Langston Hughes
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0374521336
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 259

Book Description
A selection of the author's favorite stories chosen from three of his books: "Simple Speaks his Mind," "Simple Takes a Wife," and "Simple Stakes a Claim."

Not So Simple

Not So Simple PDF Author: Donna Akiba Sullivan Harper
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826260683
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Book Description
The "Simple" stories, Langston Hughes's satirical pieces featuring Harlem's Jesse B. Semple, have been lauded as Hughes's greatest contribution to American fiction. In Not So Simple, Donna Akiba Sullivan Harper provides the first full historical analysis of the Simple stories. Harper traces the evolution and development of Simple from his 1943 appearance in Hughes's weekly Chicago Defender column through his 1965 farewell in the New York Post. Drawing on correspondence and manuscripts of the stories, Harper explores the development of the Simple collections, from Simple Speaks His Mind (1950) to Simple's Uncle Sam (1965), providing fresh and provocative perspectives on both Hughes and the characters who populate his stories. Harper discusses the nature of Simple, Harlem's "everyman", and the way in which Hughes used his character both to teach fellow Harlem residents about their connection to world events and to give black literature a hero whose "day-after-day heroism" would exemplify greatness. She explores the psychological, sociological, and literary meanings behind the Simple stories, and suggests ways in which the stories illustrate lessons of American history and political science. She also examines the roles played by women in these humorously ironic fictions. Ultimately, Hughes's attitudes as an author are measured against the views of other prominent African American writers. Demonstrating the richness and complexity of this Langston Hughes character and the Harlem he inhabited. Not So Simple makes an important contribution to the study of American literature.

Not So Simple

Not So Simple PDF Author: Donna Sullivan Harper
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826210880
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 281

Book Description
The "Simple" stories, Langston Hughes's satirical pieces featuring Harlem's Jesse B. Semple, have been lauded as Hughes's greatest contribution to American fiction. In Not So Simple, Donna Akiba Sullivan Harper provides the first full historical analysis of the Simple stories. Harper traces the evolution and development of Simple from his 1943 appearance in Hughes's weekly Chicago Defender column through his 1965 farewell in the New York Post. Drawing on correspondence and manuscripts of the stories, Harper explores the development of the Simple collections, from Simple Speaks His Mind (1950) to Simple's Uncle Sam (1965), providing fresh and provocative perspectives on both Hughes and the characters who populate his stories. Harper discusses the nature of Simple, Harlem's "everyman", and the way in which Hughes used his character both to teach fellow Harlem residents about their connection to world events and to give black literature a hero whose "day-after-day heroism" would exemplify greatness. She explores the psychological, sociological, and literary meanings behind the Simple stories, and suggests ways in which the stories illustrate lessons of American history and political science. She also examines the roles played by women in these humorously ironic fictions. Ultimately, Hughes's attitudes as an author are measured against the views of other prominent African American writers. Demonstrating the richness and complexity of this Langston Hughes character and the Harlem he inhabited. Not So Simple makes an important contribution to the study of American literature.

The Collected Works of Langston Hughes

The Collected Works of Langston Hughes PDF Author: Langston Hughes
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826263852
Category : African Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 400

Book Description


The Life of Langston Hughes

The Life of Langston Hughes PDF Author: Arnold Rampersad
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199882274
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 566

Book Description
February 1, 2002 marks the 100th birthday of Langston Hughes. To commemorate the centennial of his birth, Arnold Rampersad has contributed new Afterwords to both volumes of his highly-praised biography of this most extraordinary and prolific American writer. The second volume in this masterful biography finds Hughes rooting himself in Harlem, receiving stimulation from his rich cultural surroundings. Here he rethought his view of art and radicalism, and cultivated relationships with younger, more militant writers such as Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin, and Amiri Bakara. Rampersad's Afterword to volume two looks further into his influence and how it expanded beyond the literary as a result of his love of jazz and blues, his opera and musical theater collaborations, and his participation in radio and television. In addition, Rempersad explores the controversial matter of Hughes's sexuality and the possibility that, despite a lack of clear evidence, Hughes was homosexual. Exhaustively researched in archival collections throughout the country, especially in the Langston Hughes papers at Yale University's Beinecke Library, and featuring fifty illustrations per volume, this anniversary edition will offer a new generation of readers entrance to the life and mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest artists.

Socialist Joy in the Writing of Langston Hughes

Socialist Joy in the Writing of Langston Hughes PDF Author: Jonathan Scott
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826265642
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 264

Book Description
"Explores Hughes's intellectual method and its relation to social activism. Examines his involvement with socialist movements of the 1920s and 1930s and contends that the goal of overthrowing white oppression produced a "socialist joy" expressed repeatedly in his later work, in spite of the anticommunist crusades of the cold war"--Provided by publisher.