Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Mississippi on February 1, 1901. In 1953, Hughes was called before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Subcommittee on Investigations to answer questions about Communist influences in his writing. The Subcommittee’s chief counsel, Roy Cohn, expected a simple answer to his question, "Have you ever been a believer in communism?" But for Hughes, the question of his political identity was complex, tied into his personal identity, history, and what it

Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri on February 1, 1901. When Hughes was called before Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Subcommittee on Investigations in 1953 to answer questions about Communist influences in his writing, the committee's chief counsel, Roy Cohn, expected simple answers. But for Hughes, the question of his political identity was complex, tied into his personal identity, history, and what it means to be an artist. This digital short features award-winning