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50 pages 1 hour read

Langston Hughes

The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1926

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Reading Check

1. What is the anecdote that Hughes uses to begin his essay about?

2. According to Hughes, what is the “mountain standing in the way” of Black art in America?

3. Hughes distinguishes between upper-, middle-, and lower-class Black families. Which socio-economic class does he believe best fosters the development of the Black artist?

4. Name one Black artist Hughes mentions as embodying the role of a true racial artist.

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Hughes interpret the young Black poet’s statement “I want to be a poet—not a Negro poet”?

2. Describe Hughes’s belief in the role that class plays in the development (or hindrance) of the Black artist.

3. What is “the duty of the younger Negro artist, if he accepts any duties at all from outsiders”?

4. How do both fellow Black folks and white patrons hinder the development of Black art?

Paired Resource

The New Negro” (1925) by Alain Locke

This short essay is included in Locke’s anthology of the same name and dives more deeply into his philosophy on the “New Negro” as a movement and an identity. It examines the social and historical factors that have contributed to the “spiritual Coming of Age” that he references in his conclusion, and it explores the impact of the “New Negro” on Black art in the Harlem Renaissance.

  • Consider having students read Locke’s short essay independently. They might keep track of important quotations in a quote journal or similar graphic organizer.
  • Then, you might facilitate a discussion (think/pair/share, small group, full class) in which students explore the intersections between this text and Hughes’s essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.”

Recommended Next Reads

Let America Be America Again” by Langston Hughes

  • In this poem, Hughes explores the disconnect between American ideals and the lived experience for many Americans by reflecting on what America is and what it could become.
  • Shared themes include The Challenge of Creating Black Art in a White World and Assimilation Versus Resistance.
  • This poem works in conversation with “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” and shows how Hughes applies the philosophies explored in his essay to his own art.
  • “Let America Be America Again” on SuperSummary

Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston

  • In this short story, Hurston explores the intersection of racism and sexism for Black women through the protagonist’s marriage to an abusive husband.
  • Shared themes include Assimilation Versus Resistance and The Tension Between Work and Creativity, in part because of the ways Hurston’s writing style deviates from traditional white norms.
  • Hurston’s story connects to Hughes’s discussion of the Black lower class and the role of the blues and jazz. Hurston writes in southern Black dialect and sets the story in a small Florida town.
  • “Sweat” on SuperSummary

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