Langston Hughes (1902–1967) was born in Joplin, Missouri, and became the central poet of the Harlem Renaissance, as well as one of the most enduring voices in American literature. His debut collection, The Weary Blues (Alfred A. Knopf, 1926), incorporated blues and jazz rhythms into poetry in groundbreaking ways. His work celebrates Black life, confronts racial injustice, and employs vernacular language to achieve both intimacy and political force. He is also the author of the celebrated sequence Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951) and the short story collections featuring Jesse B. Semple. He studied briefly at Columbia University and graduated from Lincoln University. He received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP in 1960.