Countee Cullen

Countee Cullen was actually born as Countee LeRoy Porter in March 30, 1903. Although there is little to no information about his childhood, it is believed he went to live with his grandmother in Harlem at the age of nine. Unfortunately, Countee’s grandmother died in the year 1918, and he had just turned 15. Countee was then adopted by a minister of the Salem Methodist Episcopal Church named Reverend Frederick Cullen, thus Countee adopted his widely known last name - Cullen.

Countee Cullen had an incredibly successful academic career during his lifetime. Cullen attended DeWitt High School where he graduated as an honor student in 1922 with special distinction in the subjects of math, Latin, French, and Greek. It was also then that Cullen’s teachers noticed his gift for poetry and outstanding speaking skills. Cullen then attended New York University where he won second place in both 1923 and 1924, and then first place in the year 1925 for the Wittier Bynner Poetry Contest. Cullen furthered his education by earning his Master’s Degree in English at Harvard University. While at Harvard, Cullen published some of his most famous poems such as: “Color”, “Heritage”, “Incident”, and “Yet do I Marvel”.

Cullen’s poem, “Incident”, contains all the elements that are characteristic of Harlem Renaissance poetry. In this poem, the narrator reflects on his trip to Baltimore as child. Maryland was a slave state during the Civil War. Baltimore had a primarily white population, then in 1968  - Martin Luther King's assassination -there was a riot which then lead to the town being primarily populated by African-American's (Bettye). Cullen's poem was written during a time when slavery was over, however there was still a lot of tension between the black and white peoples of Baltimore (Bettye).

“Cullen was young, Black, handsome and brilliant. He was one of Harlem's brightest stars. He moved easily between Black and white cultures and believed that art was bigger than race and could, in fact, be used to bring the races closer together” (Williams). Countee Cullen had everything in his advantage because he was extremely intelligent and possessed the Black experience of life.

Cullen went on to write for an African American journal where his column the “Dark Tower” became popular. “Dark Tower” is significant because it is the name of the home belonging to A’lelia Walker, who would invite the “crème de la crop” of the Harlem Renaissance to her home as sort of a nightclub. This is home was torn down in 1941, but is now a library named after Countee Cullen.

In 1928 Countee Cullen married W.E.B Du Bois’s daughter, Nina Yolanda Du Bois; they divorced two years later.

Throughout the rest of his life, Cullen published a wide range of writings, from children’s books to a musical, but he spent most of his time as a French teacher at Frederick Douglass Junior High.

“Cullen wanted to be known as a poet, not defined by race, despite race being a recurring theme in his work. He clarified his point in the Brooklyn Eagle, Feb. 10, 1924: ‘If I am going to be a poet at all, I am going to be POET and not NEGRO POET. This is what has hindered the development of artists among us. Their one note has been the concern with their race’” (Williams).

Countee Cullen died January 9, 1946 from high blood pressure problems.