Langston Hughes, born in 1902, is remembered for his short stories and poetry which were great influences in the Harlem Renaissance. His work was steeped in the politics of race relations, as he spent much of his early life in the South, where society was still segregated. Time spent in Ohio, New York, and in travelling the globe helped to shape his attitude towards the treatment of People of Color in the United States. He published his first poem in 1921 and his first book in 1926.

Though we do not have a certain, specific date for the writing of Remember, it was presumably written around 1930. This poem, along with a few others, were written by Hughes on the inside cover of a book and discovered after his death.