In 1934, Langston Hughes - one of the most prominent Black writers of the 1900s - published a story about lynching called "Home." It was an accidental prophecy for his own life.
In "Home," Roy Williams, an elegant Black musician, returns home to Missouri after touring the world. The sight of a urbane Black man infuriates local white people. When Roy speaks with a white woman, a mob beats him to death and hangs him naked from a tree. That same year, after touring the world, Hughes settled in Carmel to write the collection that would feature "Home," and the same thing almost happened to him.
Upset by his local activism, armed vigilantes told Hughes he should leave if he knew what was good for him, according to biographer Arnold Rampersad and Hughes' own unpublished writing. Black men were lynched for nothing, yet here he was saying something. He hid his manuscripts, fled, then buried the secret of Carmel forever.
Hughes was a vocal critic of racism his whole life - Martin Luther King, Jr. regularly quoted his poetry in speeches and wrote him fan mail - yet like so many Black people, Hughes wasn't permitted to fully tell the story of the racism he experienced, and white people weren't prepared to listen. He never wrote about it or told his friends.
Today, as protests continue the fight for racial justice, Hughes' time in Carmel, and how it was forgotten, is vital to understand. It shows how even the strongest voices for change risk getting erased unless people with privilege make a concerted effort to hear them, which often involves unsettling their understanding of the past, the present, and the communities they come from.
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July 04, 2020 at 06:04PM
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The lost story of Langston Hughes in Carmel highlights how racism has and hasn't changed - SFGate
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