Langston Hughes Publishes 'Simple' Stories — Voice of Black Urban America

Langston Hughes published 'Simple Takes a Wife' in 1953 and 'Simple Stakes a Claim' in 1957, continuing his celebrated series of stories featuring Jesse B. Semple ('Simple'), a working-class Black Harlem everyman whose shrewd commentary on race and American life delighted readers. The Simple columns, which had begun in the Chicago Defender, reached millions of Black readers and gave voice to the vernacular wit and wisdom of ordinary Black urban Americans. Hughes's Simple remains one of the most beloved characters in African American literature.