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James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was very small, and his father (who found American racism made his desires to be a lawyer impossible) left the family and emigrated to Mexico. Hughes' mother moved with her child to Lawrence, Kansas, so she and he could live with his grandmother, Mary Langston.
Langston Hughes' mother moved to Topeka in 1907, leaving the five-year-old with his grandmother. Langston came from a family of African-American activists. His mother's first husband had been killed at Harper's Ferry. Her second husband, Charles Langston (Langston Hughes' grandfather), had taken part in political activism on behalf of a slave. Charles Langston's brother, John Mercer Langston, had been a member of the United States House of Representatives (from Virginia) in the 1890s, as well as a diplomat, lawyer, and educator. Though her past had been vivid and important, Mary Langston's presence was not enough to......

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