The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Hughes’s essay reflects on the tension between Assimilation Versus Resistance.

• Ultimately, what factors stand in the way of resisting the “urge toward whiteness”? (topic sentence)
• Explore the complexities of these factors as Hughes presents them.
• In your concluding sentences, articulate the importance of resisting assimilation for the development of the Black artist.

2. In his conclusion, Hughes asserts that the future of Black art depends upon Black artists being “free within [them]selves.” Ultimately, he believes racial art requires a kind of mental and spiritual emancipation.

• How is this internal freedom both individual and collective? (topic sentence)
• Explore the ways that this freedom fosters “truly racial” art, according to the essay.
• In your concluding sentences, discuss how this internal freedom is a form of resistance.

3. Hughes asserts that jazz “is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America.”

• How is jazz presented in this essay as a mood that transcends a musical genre?
• Explore the different manifestations of jazz in Black life as presented by Hughes.
• In your concluding sentences, discuss how Hughes uses specific artists as examples of this jazz expression.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. In his essay, Hughes explores what it means to be a “truly racial” artist. As a writer, Hughes was an artist himself. Choose one of the poems that Hughes wrote during the Harlem Renaissance and apply his philosophy around racial art and the Black artist to his own poetry. How does your selected Hughes poem demonstrate how Hughes is a racial artist? Cite evidence from both the essay and the poem to support your argument.

2. Hughes examines The Tension Between Work and Creativity. Analyze the development of this theme in the essay. How is this tension at the heart of what Hughes considers the racial artist, and what does Hughes ultimately conclude? Cite evidence from the essay to support your claim.