Langston Hughes’ revolutionary ancestors shaped his world and identity. He was named after his grandfather Charles H. Langston, a leading Black abolitionist of the most militant stripe tried for his part in 1858’s Oberlin–Wellington Rescue. A co-worker of John Brown’s in Oberlin who helped to gather volunteers for the Provisional Army, Langston would marry the mother Lewis Leary, one of five Black raiders who went with Brown to Harper’s Ferry in October, 1859. Langston inherited, by family tradition, the shawl claimed to be worn by Leary when he died, citing it as his most treasured possession. Below, a report of Hughes’ grandfather’s speech in Cleveland on Brown December 2, 1859 execution.

‘Charles H. Langston’s Speech’ from The Weekly Anglo-African (New York). Vol. 1 No. 22. December 17, 1859.

The following is a synopsis of Mr. Langston’s speech at the Cleveland meeting, on the 2nd inst:-

He said that he could not, like those who had spoken before him, say “My Fellow Citizens, for his color prevented him from filling the position of a citizen. He spoke strongly in reprobation of slavery, and stated it to be condemned by Scripture and also by the great men of American history.

He did not expect ever to stand in the position he now occupied, addressing a white meeting in honor of a white man. Born in Virginia, he expected there no consideration, but when he came to Ohio and found that he could there get no rights, even among men who professed to love liberty, he then never expected to honor a white man, He knew John Brown was an exceptional man. He knew no distinction of color, and respected a white man as much as a black. He also honored John Brown because he did not uphold slave-holding religion. He had refused to hear a slave-holding preacher, telling him that he respected him as a gentleman, but as a heathen gentleman.

John Brown has been murdered, but not by Gov. Wise and the Virginians. He was murdered by the American people; murdered in consequence of your union with Southern slave-holders. He was not captured by Virginians. All Virginia could not capture him and his twenty-one men. but the dirty work was done by United States marines, paid by Northern men.

He read an extract from the National Democrat in reference to the meeting. The reading of the extract caused great excitement, and the speaker was called on to name the paper, but he declined to do so. as the writer was present, and it was not proper to point him out.

In conclusion, he hoped that to-day would commence a new era, but until black men were made free, white men would remain slaves. All men speak of the matter from their own stand point. I look at it from a colored man’s stand point one who hates our government as I hate the devil.