<Tr> <Th> Period </Th> <Td> 1926--64 </Td> </Tr> <P> James Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902--May 22, 1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri . </P> <P> He was one of the earliest innovators of the then - new literary art form called jazz poetry . Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City . He famously wrote about the period that "the negro was in vogue", which was later paraphrased as "when Harlem was in vogue". </P> <P> Like many African Americans, Hughes has complex ancestry . Both of Hughes' paternal great - grandmothers were enslaved African Americans and both of his paternal great - grandfathers were white slave owners in Kentucky . According to Hughes, one of these men was Sam Clay, a Scottish - American whiskey distiller of Henry County and supposedly a relative of the statesman Henry Clay . The other was Silas Cushenberry, a Jewish - American slave trader of Clark County . Hughes's maternal grandmother Mary Patterson was of African - American, French, English and Native American descent . One of the first women to attend Oberlin College, she married Lewis Sheridan Leary, also of mixed race, before her studies . Leary subsequently joined John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 and died from his wounds . </P>

Who was considered the most powerful writer of the harlem renaissance for his work
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