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Local figure

Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes came to Chapel Hill in 1931 for a public reading, timed just after the local magazine Contempo printed his poem "Christ in Alabama" and an essay on the Scottsboro case. Townspeople sent UNC president Frank Porter Graham a flood of letters calling for the event to be canceled, but Graham let the reading go on.

Source: UNC Libraries, A Right to Speak and to Hear: Contempo and Langston Hughes

1902–1967 · Dates from the Library of Congress · Library of Congress authority record ↗

5 works about Langston Hughes are indexed here, as is one work by Hughes.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. The Carolina Magazine prints an issue of work by Black writers, including Langston Hughes's 'Mulatto' The student magazine's 'Negro Number' carried only work by African American writers. Hughes's 'Mulatto' drew none of the reaction that the story 'Slaves' had caused the fall before, though both dealt with the same subject. People: Langston Hughes Place: UNC, Chapel HillSearch the index · Howard E. Covington Jr., Fire and Stone: The Making of the University of North Carolina under Presidents Edward Kidder Graham and Harry Woodburn Chase (2018), p. 365
  2. Langston Hughes reads in Gerrard Hall after Contempo prints "Christ in Alabama" Milton Abernethy of Contempo invited Langston Hughes to Chapel Hill and printed his Scottsboro poem "Christ in Alabama" in the issue dated December 1, timed to appear days before the visit. Hughes spoke and read to students and townspeople in Gerrard Hall on the night of November 19, 1931. People: Milton Abernethy, Guy Benton Johnson, Langston Hughes Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Gerrard HallSearch the index · The Daily Tar Heel, November 21, 1931, p. 1 (Negro Lecturer Gives Humorous History of Life)
  3. President Frank Porter Graham refuses to cancel Langston Hughes's Chapel Hill reading After Contempo printed Hughes's "Christ in Alabama" and his Scottsboro essay, Graham and town officials received a flood of letters calling Hughes sacrilegious and demanding the engagement be canceled. Graham did not interfere, and the reading went on as planned. People: Frank Porter Graham Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · UNC Libraries, A Right to Speak and to Hear: Contempo and Langston Hughes

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Langston Hughes, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Indexed works

Works about or by Langston Hughes. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it. Background reading appears below.

By Langston Hughes

Color at Chapel Hill.

Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967 · 1958

Langston Hughes recalls a visit he made to Chapel Hill in November 1931, writing in 1958 about race relations in the university town. The piece fills pages 404 through 406 at 22 cm and describes his travels in North Carolina, a first-person account by one of the best known American poets of the century.

UNC

About Langston Hughes

Anti-religious invasion of higher education

Tatum, L. A. (Loyd Allen), 1917-1995 · 1932 · L.A. Tatum

L. A. Tatum's address, delivered on presenting a petition to Governor O. Max Gardner, objects to the speaker policy at the University of North Carolina and the North Carolina College for Women, and in particular to appearances by Bertrand Russell at both and Langston Hughes at the university. Published by Tatum at Belmont, North Carolina in 1932.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967.

UNC

In heaven's name, governor, save our state from further predatory acts by these so-called modern educators against "things of the spirit"

1932

A protest addressed to Governor O. Max Gardner in 1932 against the speakers invited to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and to the North Carolina College for Women in Greensboro, among them Bertrand Russell and Langston Hughes. Printed in North Carolina, it concerns lecturers in both towns and liberalism in the state.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967.

UNC

"Angels of darkness" on the campus at Chapel Hill

1932 · Funk and Wagnall's

A 1932 magazine account of the attack L.A. Tatum made on the universities at Chapel Hill and Greensboro for letting Langston Hughes and Bertrand Russell lecture to students. Detached from the Literary digest, volume 114, number 16, for 15 October 1932, with subjects including lecturers, liberalism and the North Carolina College for Women.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967.

UNC

Contempo records, 1930-1934

Contempo · 1930

Records of 'Contempo, a review of books and personalities', the Chapel Hill literary magazine, covering 1930 to 1934, part of the Southern Historical Collection at UNC, collection 4408. Milton Abernethy and Tony Buttitta are among the people covered, along with writers the magazine dealt with: William Faulkner, Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, E. E. Cummings and H. L. Mencken.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Hughes, Langston, 1902-1967.

UNC

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

  • Gerrard Hall University buildings and grounds · Chapel Hill · 1 event here

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Background

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Langston Hughes Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

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Books about Langston Hughes

Books by Langston Hughes

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