journal NEWMASSES,a radical magazine that reg-
ularly critiqued the class politics of Renaissance-
era writers like CLAUDEMCKAYand contributed
to calls for racial and social justice.
Broun, Heywood(1888–1939)
A cofounder and the first president of the Ameri-
can Newspaper Guild, which was organized in
- Broun was a forthright critic of American
government policy, and his opinions frequently re-
sulted in the termination of his employment at
various American newspapers. In 1921 LANG-
STONHUGHES, who had just began his first year at
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, attended the Rand
School of Social Science lectures that Broun de-
livered there.
Brown, Hallie Quinn (ca. 1845–1949)
A pioneering educator and writer of detailed
African-American women’s histories, Brown was
the daughter of former slaves, who dedicated
themselves to helping other fugitives escape via
the Underground Railroad. Brown inherited her
parent’s commitment to social protest and racial
uplift. Her active participation in temperance
groups, suffrage organizations, and educational
programs dedicated to African-American migrant
workers contributed to her election to the presi-
dency of the NATIONALASSOCIATION OFCOL-
OREDWOMENin 1920. In 1924 she became the
first African-American woman to address a na-
tional political convention when she gave a speech
in which she supported the candidacy of Warren
Harding.
Brown published the bulk of her work during
the Harlem Renaissance. Her publications included
instructional texts on elocution, borne of Brown’s
stint as a professor of elocution at WILBERFORCE
UNIVERSITY, and two books devoted to African-
American women’s history: Our Women: Past, Pre-
sent, and Future(1925) and Homespun Heroines and
Other Women of Distinction (1926). Wilberforce
University, the institution on whose behalf she
traveled abroad to raise money, presented her with
two honorary degrees, a master of science in 1890
and a law degree in 1936.
Brown, Sterling Allen(1901–1989)
Regarded by some critics as the folk poet of the
Harlem Renaissance, this talented poet, critic, and
teacher was born to former slaves in the District of
Columbia. He distinguished himself at DUNBAR
HIGHSCHOOL, where his teachers included JESSIE
FAUSET, the CRISISliterary editor and novelist, and
ANGELINAWELDGRIMKÉ, the playwright. His stel-
lar academic career continued during his under-
graduate years at Williams College, where he was
elected to PHIBETAKAPPAand graduated with
honors. He pursued graduate studies in English at
HARVARDUNIVERSITYand earned a master’s de-
gree in 1923.
Brown began his 40-year tenure in the English
Department of HOWARDUNIVERSITYin 1929. He
published SOUTHERNROAD,his first volume of po-
etry, three years later. Despite the praise that Brown
received from ALAINLOCKEand other critics and
his repeated publication in OPPORTUNITYand other
journals, his Howard University colleagues showed
disdain for his work. They resisted his use of folk im-
ages, dialect, Negro spirituals, and black musical
forms like jazz and the blues. They made plain their
preference for works that adhered to more standard
English and conventional anglicized poetical forms.
The Howard criticism, coupled with the economic
hardships of the GREATDEPRESSION, made it diffi-
cult for Brown to find a publisher for his second col-
lection of poems; he would not publish another
book of verses for some 40 years.
In the late 1930s and in the decades that fol-
lowed, Brown collaborated with other writers and
scholars and produced highly regarded collections
of African-American literature. These included
THENEGRO INAMERICANFICTIONand Negro Po-
etry and Drama.In 1941 he, ARTHURDAVIS, and
ULYSSESLEEedited The Negro Caravan,a highly
respected anthology whose value lay in its presen-
tation of many previously unpublished works by
African Americans.Bibliography
Gabbin, Joanne. Sterling A. Brown: Building the Black
Aesthetic Tradition.Westport, Conn.: Greenwood
Press, 1985.
Sanders, Mark. Afro-Modernist Aesthetics and the Poetry
of Sterling Brown.Athens: University of Georgia
Press, 1999.Brown, Sterling Allen 67