What are some of Langston Hughes' poetic characteristics?

I would say that one of the most distinctive qualities of
Hughes' poetry is how he articulated the condition of "the other."  Hughes was able to
bring out the context of what it means to be a person of color in a social setting that
had a challenging time (and still does, to an extent) addressing the issue of race and
ethnicity.  As part of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes was able to make the argument that
American progress and optimism, so present during the 1920s, had to be tempered with the
understanding that only a part of American Society was being addressed.  Hughes and
other writers like him were able to talk about the "insider" vs. "outsider" dynamic with
a disarming clarity and lucidity to their work.  In assessing the lasting impact of
Hughes' work, one could make the argument that he was the logical extension of poets
such as Whitman and Emerson, who strove to give the nation voice as it expanded and
integrated multiple notions of the good into its frame of reference.  It is in this
where Hughes' work is distinctive, in that it spoke of a condition of marginalization
and social silence that had not been addressed in such a strong manner up to that
point.