Langston Hughes, the Unnamed Hero Behind the Civil Rights Movement.
- Oct 1, 2022
- 1 min read
By Alexandra Erdos
From Researchgate.net
Little is it known that Martin Luther King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech from 1963 was inspired by “I Dream a World,” a poem written by Langston Hughes in 1941 and published in 1945. King’s famous speech echoes Hughes’ words and ideas from 20 years before, and almost exactly mirrors the way the two icons spoke, as if they were contemporaries.
The new biography, as part of the Critical Lives series, aims to present critical figures of culture, literature, and history, in short, and in “the context of their lives.” The innovation of the series is that writers also provide readers with illustrations, such as—in the case of Langston Hughes—photographs about himself in various stages of his life (some taken
by his friends Henri Cartier-Bresson and Marion Palfi), photographs about his family members, and about handwritten or typed poems—some even containing his signature and/or changes in the words and lines. The series also aims at offering short analyses of major works by the artists, philosophers, or even politicians in question. Miller’s book definitely has some freshness compared to the previous biographies written on Langston Hughes. Because of its shortness, it is adequate reading material for the general public and a good starting point for undergraduate students and their theses.
