Nella Larsen, nurse, librarian, and writer, was born Nella Marie Larsen in Chicago, Illinois, in 1891 to a Danish mother and a Black West Indian father. Knowing little about her father after his death when she was two years old, she was reared in the … Read MoreNella Larsen (1891-1964)
Mary Church Terrell, a writer, suffragist, educator, and activist, co-founded the National Association of Colored Women and served as the organization’s first president. Known as “Mollie” to her family, Church, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee on September 23, 1863, lived a life of privilege … Read MoreMary Church Terrell (1863-1954)
Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks, born June 7, 1917 in Topeka, Kansas, moved to Chicago, Illinois where she was reared and launched her literary career. Marrying Henry Blakely in 1939, the couple had two children. Brooks’s formal education consists of an associate degree in literature and arts … Read MoreGwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)
Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, collector, archivist, writer, activist, and important figure of the Harlem Renaissance was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico on January 24, 1874. His mother was a black woman originally from St. Croix, Danish Virgin Islands (now the U.S. Virgin Islands), and his … Read MoreArturo Alfonso Schomburg (1874-1938)
Hoping for a much better life outside the racially oppressive South and Alexandria, Louisiana where Arnaud Wendell Bontemps was born on October 13, 1902, the middle-class Bontemps family moved to the Watts community just south of Los Angeles. They soon abandoned Catholicism and became devout … Read MoreArna Bontemps (1902-1973)
Chester Himes was an important writer of fiction and autobiography. Although Himes’s most widely read novels were detective stories set in Harlem, his first two published novels reflected his experiences in Los Angeles, where he lived from 1940 until 1944. Himes was born in Jefferson … Read MoreChester Himes (1909-1984)
