During his years in Harlem, Cullen was at the
center of lively literary and cultural circles. The
heiress A’LELIAWALKER, daughter of the highly
successful entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker, was a
major social figure, and her friendship with Cullen
meant that he often had invitations to her memo-
rable and frequent soirées. Walker’s home on
136th Street, which fondly became known as “The
Dark Tower,” was the site of many gatherings that
included writers, artists, musicians, critics, poten-
tial patrons, and publishers.
In April 1928, Cullen married YOLANDE
DUBOIS, the only surviving child of W. E. B. DUBOIS,
to much acclaim. The lavish wedding ceremony oc-
curred in his father’s church, with his father presid-
ing. The wedding announcements underscored the
collective sense of Cullen’s professional potential
and that, with his bride’s lineage, the marriage rep-
resented a marriage of two American families with
imposing literary and intellectual traditions. “The
marriage of Countee Cullen, negro poet and recent
winner of a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, to
Miss Nina Yolande Du Bois, daughter of Dr. W. E.
B. Du Bois, editor of The Crisis,will take place
April 9” (NYT,26 March 1928, 15) read the an-
nouncement in the New York Times.At the time of
the wedding, DuBois was an art and English
teacher at Baltimore’s Douglas High School. Ac-
cording to David Levering Lewis, the historian and
Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer of W. E. B.
DuBois, DuBois made every effort to collaborate
with his future son-in-law in order to preserve the
propriety of the occasion. According to Lewis, the
two men met for lunch at the Civic Club in order
to finalize the details about the guest list, reception
format, and hour of the service. Both men at-
tempted to persuade Yolande to reduce the number
of bridesmaids from 15 to six, but she prevailed,
had 16 attendants, and also succeeded in inviting
some 1,500 guests, rather than the more modest
number of 500, to the ceremony. The wedding,
which took place on Easter Monday, represented a
virtual who’s who of African-American society and
the Harlem Renaissance circles. DuBois’s brides-
maids included members of The Moles, the social
club to which DuBois herself belonged (Ferguson,
99). Among the young women from the social and
professional elite were Mae Miller, the daughter of
HOWARDUNIVERSITYdean Kelly Miller, Harriet
Pickens, the daughter of a high-ranking National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People
officer, and Constance Murphy, a member of the
family that ran the influential Baltimore Afro-Ameri-
cannewspaper. The writer ARNABONTEMPS, whom
Cullen introduced to the thriving New York literary
and cultural scene; William Alphaeus Hunton, Jr.,
the brother of writer EUNICEHUNTONCARTER;and
LANGSTONHUGHESand HAROLDJACKMANwere
among the 14 groomsmen. The reception, which
originally was scheduled to be held at the Madame
Walker Studio, was relocated to the rectory at
Salem Methodist Church.
Despite the pomp and circumstance of the cer-
emony and the massive press coverage that in-
cluded two pages of photographs in The Crisisand
detailed accounts in the INTER-STATETATTLERand
AMSTERDAMNEWS,the marriage began to dissolve
shortly after the service. The honeymoon in
PHILADELPHIAdid not go well, and within two
months, Cullen’s ocean voyage to Europe without
his wife and with Harold Jackman, a handsome,
close bisexual friend, prompted a revival of rumors
about his homosexuality. Cullen, who was en route
to Paris as a Guggenheim Fellow, attempted to ex-
plain that Yolande had responsibilities that made it
necessary to delay her departure and that his father
would be accompanying the men on the voyage.
Nonetheless, the marriage failed, and the couple,
who attempted reconciliations, finally divorced in- The dissolution did not affect Cullen’s future
submissions to The Crisis,the journal edited by his
former father-in-law and in which his poetry had
appeared often. DuBois assured him that the maga-
zine would continue to welcome and to publish his
work. It was nearly a decade before Cullen remar-
ried. His second wife, Ida Mae Roberson, was a sis-
ter of Orlando Roberson, a well-known singer who
was affiliated with the Claude Hopkins Orchestra
and later with the Ink Spots. Writer Arna Bon-
temps, with whom Cullen enjoyed a good profes-
sional and social relationship, noted that not only
was “Countee’s wife Ida... quite lovely: petite,
dainty, very friendly, very devoted to Cullen” but
that “as a result Countee is writing as of old”
(Nichols, 95). The couple, who married in Septem-
ber 1940, enjoyed six years together before Cullen
died from high blood pressure and uremic poisoning
in January 1946. It was Ida Cullen who met with
106 Cullen, Countee Porter