History & Resources
Langston Hughes Society
Founded in 1981, the Langston Hughes Society (LHS) was the first scholarly association named in honor of an African American writer. The LHS is a national association of scholars, teachers, creative and performing artists, students, and lay persons who seek to increase awareness and appreciation of Langston Hughes (1 February 1902 – 22 May 1967), the first African American to make his living solely by his pen. Throughout his four decades of literary creativity that is virtually unrivalled in American letters, Hughes wrote fifty books, including poetry, drama, autobiography, history, fiction, prose comedy, juvenile literature, librettos, and black gospel song-plays.
The LHS founding meeting was held in the Baltimore, Maryland, home of Therman and Lillian O’Daniel on June 26, 1981, the anniversary date that Hughes received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP in 1960.
In October 1981, the six founding members met in Atlanta, Georgia, at the home of Millicent Dobbs Jordan from Spelman College, who had known Langston Hughes while he was a visiting teacher at the Atlanta University Center.
On April 22, 1982, the LHS held its first annual meeting in conjunction with the forty-second annual convention of the College Language Association in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Langston Hughes Review, founded 1982, is the official publication of the Langston Hughes Society. http://www.uga.edu/~iaas/lhr/index.html
The LHS welcome scholars and lay persons who are interested in promoting the legacy of Langston Hughes.
Further Readings
Berry, Faith. “The Universality of Langston Hughes .” Langston Hughes Review 1.2 (Fall 1982): 1-10.
Deck, Alice A. “The Langston Hughes Society: Its Inaugural Year.” Langston Hughes Review 1.2 (Fall 1982): 27-28.
Hubbard, Dolan. “Langston Hughes Society.” The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Literature (5 volumes). Ed. Hans Ostrom and Associate Ed. J. David Macey, Jr. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. 3: 955-57.
---. “Langston Hughes Society.” Organizing Black America: An Encyclopedia of African American Associations. Ed. Nina Mjagkij. New York: Garland, 2001. 299-300.
Miller, R. Baxter. “Langston Hughes.” Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 51: Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940. Eds. Trudier Harris and Thadious M. Davis. Detroit: Gale Research, 1987. 112-33.
Resources
Beineke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
