Does Langston Hughes express political or societal values?

From the very beginning, Hughes was devoted to discussing
through the medium of his art both the societal and political realities of Harlem and
America as he experienced them. He recognized the possibility of being the poetic voice
of his people and rejected easy paths to fame and wealth in order to pursue this goal.
His final and posthumous work focused on societal issues that had political foundations.
In The Panther and the Lash, he decried race relations in America
at a time when some African Americans were dissatisfied with the goal of integration and
some were taking and advocating violent retribution as a way of asserting trodden upon
black rights, such as the Black Panthers.

In his first collection of
poems, Hughes sang the song, in his own blues tune, of the societal problems of poverty
and racially founded maltreatment that then existed in Harlem. (Later, he reneged on
pro-socialist expressions in his works.) In his first collection, The Weary
Blues, he spoke, as at the end of his life, of societal issues that were
founded in political problems. For example, poverty might be fought through government
programs that equalize education opportunities and success; racial conflict might be
fought with government legislation prohibiting and punishing it (e.g., current
legislation against racial profiling).

Throughout his career of
exploring societal woes neglected by political action designed to protect and
mitigate--whether explored in Russia, America, or Africa--Hughes turned the spotlight on
the human side of the suffering caused by violence, poverty, and marginalization as
experienced in black life in America. So, while you might say Hughes focused on societal
issues, these issues all had foundations in political action that was needed but
neglected.