For my archival post this week, I decided to focus on Langston Hughes’s poetic debut. Instead of looking for one of his poems for our week’s reading in the literary archives, I chose to research where his first piece was published. Hughes was one of the largest figures of the Harlem Renaissance movement and wrote alongside other reputable authors such as Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, and Countee Cullen. Together, and along with many other historical figures, these individuals collaboratively established a strong, artistic and opinionated voice during the 1920s cultural movement.
Hughes first publication was the poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” which debuted in The Crisis in 1921, Volume 22 – No. 2. This poem narrates the speaker’s belief that his soul is as old and deep as the river in which he has visited. Other authors with published pieces in this edition were Jessie Fauset and W.K. Bradley. The editor of this magazine during the early 1920s was W.E.B Du Bois, and he strongly claimed that his mission statement for the magazine was that, “The object of this publication is to set forth those facts and arguments which show the danger of race prejudice, particularly as manifested today toward colored people.” Du Bois promised that he would publish pieces that swore true his agenda and intentions for the magazine, pieces similar to those that Hughes produced during this era. Hughes is one of the artists that resonated with the mission and intent of the magazine, which served as a platform for Hughes poetic career. Du Bois also made it a point to make it known that pieces of work published in The Crisis were ultimately a matter of subjectivity, and because of this liberty, Du Bois believed that this was the most critical time for the advancement of man as well as an opportunity, “for the highest ideals of American democracy.”
The Crisis was no doubt a revolutionary magazine for its time, giving African American artists and equality advocates the opportunity to have their voices heard, in addition to having them distributed amongst a wider audience. This notion rang true for individuals such as Langston Hughes, giving him the platform he deserved to begin his prestigious career as a poet, novelist, and social activist.