UReCA: The NCHC Undergraduate Journal of Research and Creative Activity, 2022
works (Cullen & Early, 1991; Kinnamon, 1987; Miller, 1987; Tucker, 2013). Both stars of the
Harlem Renaissance era, Hughes produced the most poetry of anyone in his generation, and
Johnson served many different roles across his career, as a civil servant, administrator in the
NAACP, civil rights activist, songwriter, novelist, poet, lawyer, teacher, and principal (Kinnamon,
1987; Miller, 1987). Commonly known by modern scholars as the diplomat of the Harlem
Renaissance, Johnson represents sophistication and versatility, while Hughes demonstrates
down to earth artistic prowess, considered the Harlem Renaissance’s poet laureate (Morley,
2012; Kinnamon, 1987; Hughes & Rampersad, 2001). Born in 1901, Hughes was the only one of
these poets who survived to see the Black Arts and Black Power Movement take off. Despite
dropping out of Columbia after one year, he completed his bachelor’s degree at Lincoln
University in 1929, but not before publishing his two most significant works: The Weary Blues
and Fine Clothes For The Jew. His work inspired many poets of his generation and the one
following, especially through his reading tours in the South from 1931-1932. Hughes served as a
mentor and example for many who would later become notable poets, including Gwendolyn
Brooks, Margaret Walker, Robert Hayden, and Alice Walker. He also traveled widely, which
influenced his political views and poetis style, embarking on a journey to Africa as a cabin boy
on a freighter, voyaging to Paris soon after, living in Russia for a year to film “Black and White,”
a Soviet film intended to combat racism, traveling back from that trip through the Orient, and
more. Hughes was the first Black artist to live solely off his writings, through his readings,
grants, and assistance from patrons (Hutchinson, 2007; Miller, 1987).
While Hughes combated racism through promoting the importance of lived experiences, James
Weldon Johnson was never far from education throughout his life, seeing schooling as a tool for
liberation. Johnson was born a decade after Clifford, in 1871, and whether he was obtaining his
B.A. from Atlanta University, taking a graduate course at Columbia, serving as a teacher and
principal at Stanton School in Jacksonville, or teaching at Fisk University as the Chair of Creative
Literature, he was committed to promoting racial uplift through education. He also committed
his talents to serving his race and preserving African American literary tradition, serving as a
consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua, field secretary in the NAACP, first Black executive secretary
in the NAACP, and poetry and essay contributor to many prominent Black publications. He was
born and raised in a mostly white community, which helped him develop a cosmopolitan
perspective before his education in race relations and the Black community’s wants and needs
at Atlanta University, a historically Black college. In contrast to Hughes, who took a working
man’s perspective aligning with the “common folk,” Johnson maintained a cautious,
middle/upper class ideology, promoting gradual change to create a more unified nation, and
using his multiple careers and leadership positions to do so. (Hutchinson, 2007; Kinnamon,
1987; Price & Oliver, 1997)
Despite their differing class perspectives and experiences, Johnson and Hughes both used Black
vernacular sources as inspiration for their writing, such as spirituals, jazz, the blues, and
traditional dialect, keeping race closely intertwined with their work. While neither were
Christians, they understood the importance of the Christian tradition in Black culture. For
instance, Johnson’s most famous poetic work features “Seven Negro Sermons in Verse,” using
the distinct tonality and form of Black preachers at the time. Clearly versed in the Christian