Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; Harlem, NY

Final Resting place for Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes' ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion in the foyer leading to the auditorium named for him within the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, located on Lenox Avenue at 135th Street in Harlem.

The design on the floor covering his cremated remains is an African cosmogram titled Rivers. The title is taken from the poem The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Hughes. Within the center of the cosmogram and precisely above the ashes of Hughes are the words My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I think it is wonderful and significant for Langston Hughes, a Black man who loved Harlem, wrote of Harlem, and was an integral part of the Harlem Renaissance to be interred in the Schomburg Center. His legacy lives on through his written contributions, as well as the physical remembrance of his life each time a lecture, program or event is held and folks gaze upon the floor medallion.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is a testament to the legacy and contributions of Africans and African Americans throughout the diaspora. The Schomburg Center has "collected, preserved, and provided access to materials documenting Black life, and promoted the study and interpretation of the history and culture of peoples of African descent. It is named for Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, fondly known as Arthur Schomburg, a Puerto Rican historian, writer and activist in the US who researched and documented the contributions made to society by Africans throughout the diaspora.