James Langston Hughes was born on February 1st, 1902 to his mother Carrie Langston Hughes and father James Nathaniel Hughes in Joplin, Missouri. Due to his parents divorce his grandmother who lived in Lawrence, Kansas, raised Hughes. Although he had a rough childhood, James Langston Hughes was one of the most respected and genius writers during the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920's. Some of his most acclaimed works include: "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "Dreams," and "I, too Sing America."
             One of Hughes most famous "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." I think this poem speaks of the history of the African American heritage.
             I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
             I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
             I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
             I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
             Hughes refers back to ancient times and places were his people have been settled long before the "white man" may know. The African American people have been living abundantly long before they were shipped over to America as slaves. "My soul has grown deep like the rivers." This sentence is stated at the beginning and end of the poem. I feel what Hughes is expressing that is from the beginning of time his people have been thriving and flowing just as the rivers. Although rivers may change, the rivers Hughes speaks of have never dried out they have only gotten deeper, just as his people have never given up through there many changes, they have remained strong and there souls have grown deep like the rivers.
             In the poem "I, Too, Sing America," the narrator of the poem is speaking through the eyes of a servant during the years of slavery. "I and the darker brother, They send me to eat in the
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