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Ellison, Ralph Waldo (1914–1994)
A southern-born writer whose lengthy sojourn in
NEWYORKCITYduring the 1930s launched his
writing career and influenced his literary works
and political ideas in the post-Harlem Renaissance
period.
Ellison was born in Oklahoma City, Okla-
homa, to Lewis Alfred and Ida Millsap Ellison in
- His father, a Spanish-American War veteran
and member of the Twenty-Fifth U.S. Colored In-
fantry, deliberately named his son after the 19th-
century poet and philosopher Ralph Waldo
Emerson. According to biographer Lawrence Jack-
son, Lewis Ellison often would declare that he was
grooming his son to become a poet. Ralph Ellison
was the grandson of four former slaves, including
Alfred Ellison, a former South Carolina slave who
became a local community leader in South Car-
olina during the Reconstruction. Ellison was three
years old when his father died. His mother pro-
vided vital emotional support and intellectual en-
couragement for her children. She shepherded
them through potentially debilitating racist en-
counters and provided her children with impres-
sive examples of gracious fortitude and race pride.
Ellison became a voracious reader during his
childhood. He graduated from the segregated
Douglass High School with honors in 1932. After
plans to attend Langston University and partici-
pate in the well-known school band failed to ma-
terialize, Ellison pursued admission to TUSKEGEE
INSTITUTElocated in Alabama. Ellison matricu-
lated 17 years after the passing of BOOKERT.
WASHINGTON, the school’s founder. When Ellison
arrived, Robert Russa Moton, a Hampton Insti-
tute graduate and future HARMONmedal and SP-
INGARNMEDALwinner, was the school’s president.
At Tuskegee, Ellison studied music with William
Dawson in the school’s impressive and richly
equipped Music School.
During his years at Tuskegee, Ellison had the
opportunity to learn about and see performances of
creative works by Harlem Renaissance artists. On
one occasion, he attended a program that included
a presentation of LANGSTONHUGHES’s stirring
poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and works
from SOUTHERNROAD,the first published volume
of poetry by STERLINGBROWNand a work that
was infused with rich African-American folk tradi-
tions, spirituals, and other musical forms.
In 1936, at the end of his junior year, Ellison
journeyed to New York on the advice of trusted
Tuskegee teachers. He hoped to earn money
enough to cover the tuition costs of his senior
year. The trip North was an eventful turning point
for Ellison. He arrived on Independence Day and
quickly was introduced to the vibrant and opin-
ionated world of Harlem Renaissance literary and
political circles. Hazel Harrison, one of his most
important college professors, the sculptress AU-
GUSTASAVAGE, the poet LANGSTON HUGHES,
and the teacher and activist LOUISETHOMPSON
facilitated Ellison’s immersion into Harlem Re-
naissance circles.
Almost immediately after arriving in New
York City, he introduced himself to ALAINLOCKE
and to Langston Hughes in the lobby of the
Harlem YMCA on 135th Street. Hughes, im-
pressed by Ellison’s literary knowledge, recom-
mended a number of contacts and locations for
the young man to seek out. He facilitated Elli-
son’s studies with RICHMONDBARTHÉ, the criti-
cally acclaimed sculptor whose commissions
included installations and murals for the New
York Treasury. Hughes also introduced the aspir-
ing writer to RICHARDWRIGHT. It was encour-
agement from Wright, a veteran editor and
forceful writer, that led to Ellison’s first published
works appearing in NEWCHALLENGE.He began
with book reviews and soon moved on to short
fiction. “Hymie’s Bull,” his first published work,
was a tale of dreadful interracial confrontations
on the railroads. It was a bittersweet professional
debut since Ellison lost his mother Ida under
tragic circumstances. Wright continued to sup-
port Ellison and was responsible for Ellison’s em-
ployment by the New Deal’s Federal Writers
Project. Ellison’s assignments for the organization
required him to do research at the Schomburg138 Ellison, Ralph Waldo