Groundsite Image Gallery
Kansas Memorial Union
Artist: Hughes, Langston
Height: 0.000"
Width: 0.000"
Kansas Memorial Union, Thirteenth St. and Jayhawk Blvd. (1924)
Today, the Kansas Memorial Union is one of the distinctive buildings on the University of Kansas campus. The original 1924 building has been remodeled extensively, but the red brick material is original in some places.
Langston Hughes visited K.U. in 1932, 1958, and 1965. He saw Auntie Mary Reed in 1932 and also presented a K.U. poetry reading, sponsored by an African American sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. He appeared at Fraser Hall (now demolished). Another sponsor was the Poetry Society. In 1932 his standard fee for readings was $100.00, although he would lower the fee if necessary (I Wonder 54).
In 1958, 1000 students attended his poetry reading here, with jazz band accompaniment. On his final visit to K.U., two years before his death, he presented a poetry reading in this building.
In 2002, the university and the Langston Hughes Society in Athens, Ga., sponsored an international conference to celebrate the one-hundred year anniversary of his birth. Alice Walker, Danny Glover, Robert Pinsky, Arnold Rampersad, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Amira Baraka and others participated. Most of that conference took place here.