"What happens to a dream deferred?
             In the early 1900's a movement of African American literature began that is now known as the Harlem Renaissance. Through poetry, novel, drama, music, and art talented African Americans expressed their views on segregation, racism, poverty, and life in a more prolific way than ever before. One of the leading members of the Harlem Renaissance was Langston Hughes; his poetry inspired not only African Americans but also became an important part of American literature. Through his words he inspired, impressed, and influenced a nation for decades to come.
             The contributing factor to Langston Hughes' overwhelming success and influence lies in his position in the cultural life and literary circle of the "New Negro" writers: Countee Cullen, Arna Bontemps, and others. The black revue Shuffle Along was on Broadway, and Harlem was the center of a thriving theater and the new music--jazz. Hughes steeped himself in the language, music, and feeling of the common people of Harlem. Proud of his folk heritage, Hughes made the spirituals, blues, and jazz the bases of his poetic expression. Hughes wrote, he contended, "to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America." He portrayed the humor, wit, endurance, and faith of his people with extraordinary skill. Subjected to discrimination and segregation, he remained steadfast in his devotion to human rights.
             His poetry, drama, and fiction touched the hearts and souls of African American writers for decades to come. Writers like Lorraine Hansbarry, who took the title for her play A Raisin in the Sun from one of Hughes' poems. Perhaps his effect on a nation as the whole is more imp
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