Langston Hughes
Like many others, after his parents divorced, Langston was raised by his maternal grandparents. His mother, Caroline "Carrie" Langston, was a schoolteacher and married James Nathaniel Hughes. His name was a product of his mother's former name and his father's last name. His father left shortly after he was born, abandoning not only Carrie and Langston but Langston's older sister as well.
James Baldwin
Born to Emma Berdis Jones, Baldwin grew up apart from his drug-addicted father. The two moved to Harlem where his mother later married a Baptist preacher named David Baldwin. The two of them had eight more children together, as well as her new husband's son from a previous marriage. They were in poverty, and Baldwin recalled being looked down upon by his stepfather, who he referred to only as his father in essays.