KCPL Director Crosby Kemper III interviews Charles Everett Pace as Langston Hughes.

Historical interview captivates crowd

By: Kelley Kates

Posted: 4/13/09

Charles Everett Pace convincingly portrayed Langston Hughes Tuesday evening at the Kansas City Public Library Central Branch.

The Langston Hughes interview was the first of three "Meet the Past with Crosby Kemper III" events hosted by the library.

It is a series featuring re-enactors who are interviewed by the library's director as if they were a certain historical figure.

Pace, the Hughes re-enactor, is a former college professor who is renowned for his portrayal of Fredrick Douglass.

The series is filmed under the local production of KCPT and focuses on historical figures with Kansas City connections.

It is slated for primetime airing in the fall.

The line-up includes Langston Hughes, Amelia Earhart and Harry S. Truman.

Although Langston Hughes lived most of his adult life in Harlem, he was born in Joplin, Mo. He also called Lawrence, Kan. home during his childhood years.

Hughes is most famous for his poetry and short stories during the Harlem Renaissance, but a portion of his work also included humorous pieces, essays and two autobiographies.

Hughes attended both Columbia University and Lincoln University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts and became a member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, the second black fraternal organization at a historically black university.

Hughes was also well-traveled.

Pace highlighted that area in his interview as Hughes.

"I knew I had to make my living from writing," and seeing how people lived in other parts of the world inspired him, he said.

After traveling to Mexico to live with his father and visiting Paris, West Africa, China, Japan and the Soviet Union for a potential film, he returned to America with wide recognition.

Despite his success with his play, "A Raisin in the Sun," and being named one of America's 25 most interesting people, he was still poor and living in Harlem.

The director asked Hughes how that must have felt.

"It was an opportunity to do what I dedicated myself to do," he said. "I have no complaints, especially when I see people in other places such as Africa."

Hughes spoke on topics of his life such as his run in with Senator George McCarthy regarding his alleged communist connection.

Hughes said he would never talk about how he felt or who he knew in relation to communism, but when the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations led by McCarthy brought Hughes in front of them, he spoke.

"They thought I'd plead the fifth, but I didn't," he said. "They said they got their part said and I got my part said and we're square."

So that was that, he said.

History shows, following the incident, Hughes distanced himself from any affiliations with the Communist party.

When recalling some of his inspirations, Hughes noted writers such as W.E.B. DuBois, William Shakespeare and Chinua Achebe, a black writer who was heavily influenced by blues and jazz.

Speaking of blues and jazz, when Hughes was asked how he felt about Kansas City, he responded, "I love Kansas City. My love for it only grew as I grew to love jazz."

Hughes reflected on his admiration for the influential jazz musician and Kansas City native, Charlie Parker.

"He is the greatest bebop artist that ever lived," he said.

Hughes ended the evening's event with a passage from his poem "Let America Be America Again."

kkates@unews.com