Langston
Hughes one of the leaders of the Harlem renaissance responded by publishing another paper, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,
and saying, “So I am ashamed for the black poet who says, "I want to be a
poet, not a Negro poet," as though his own racial world were not as
interesting as any other world. I am ashamed, too, for the colored artist who
runs from the painting of Negro faces to the painting of sunsets after the
manner of the academicians because he fears the strange unwhiteness of his own
features. An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must
also never be afraid to do what he must choose… If white people are pleased we
are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And
ugly too…. If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their
displeasure doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as
we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.”
Emphasizing the right of black artists to express themselves however they want
about the Negro race, and that blacks are indeed different from whites and a
uniform black art form was indeed necessary. Langston Hughes argued that for
black artists to paint anything but images of African Americans was identical
to wanting to be white, and that was not the purpose of this movement. This was
a time for blacks to express themselves at will, free from stereotypes, and
negative repercussion from the white community.