Education

When Langston Hughes was little he attended Pinckney elementary school and Central school. When Langston graduated elementary school he was named class poet, even though he hadn't even written a poem yet. This initiated his interest in writing poetry.

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He began writing poetry in High school. His friends in high school were mostly white and remembered Langston for his quite natural ways and for his abilities. Besides writing poetry Langston also ran track and held offices in the student council and the American Civic Association. In high school, Langston submitted some of his work to magazines but they were all rejected. He graduated from a public high school in Cleveland, Ohio.

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After High school Langston spent a year in Mexico with his father. When he returned to America he enrolled at Columbia university. It was there that he got involved in the Harlem burgeoning cultural movement. Although, he didn't end up liking  it there so after a year he left. He took many different odd jobs in New York until he eventually took a job on a freight that took him to Africa and Spain. During all of that he was still writing poetry. When he returned back to the US he got a job as a busboy in Washington D.C.. At that job he gave his poems to poet Vachel Lindsay. She really liked his poems and helped to get him connections which helped him get a wider audience. In 1925 his poem "The Weary Blues" won first prize in the Opportunity magazine literary competition and won him a scholarship to go to Lincoln University. Langston graduated form Lincoln in 1929.