The Messengeroffered readers an unapologetic
forceful critique of social policy and current
events. It provided another important forum in
which writers could debate diverse social and polit-
ical matters and present the dynamic ideas and ab-
sorbing work that so enriched the Harlem
Renaissance period.
Bibliography
Anderson, Jervis. A. Philip Randolph: A Biographical Por-
trait.New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973.
Pfeffer, Paula. A. Philip Randolph, Pioneer of the Civil
Rights Movement. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State
University Press, 1990.
Wilson, Sondra, ed. The Messenger Reader: Stories, Poetry,
and Essays from The Messenger Magazine.New York:
Modern, 2000.
Millen, James Knox (unknown)
A southern playwright who incorporated African
Americans in his casts and explored volatile issues
such as LYNCHING. He worked with figures such as
Howard Linsay, Chester Erskin, and Robin Sparks.
His set designers included the celebrated Jo
Mielziner.
Among the African-American actors who ap-
peared in Millen’s work were the veteran Rose Mc-
Clendon, William L. Andrews, Viola Dean, and
Leigh Whipper.
Millen’s works, which often appeared on
Broadway, included Flame,which was renamed and
performed as Never No More(1932), The Bough
Breaks(1937), and Old Autumn. The works ap-
peared in such Broadway venues as the Hudson
Theatre and Little Theatre. Millen’s work was re-
viewed in major publications such as the New York
Times.The highly respected drama critic J. Brooks
Atkinson praised Millen for Never No More,a play
that he described as “a harrowing, sincerely resolute
play” (NYT,8 January 1932, 27).
Bibliography
Atkinson, T. Brooks. “The Play: Lynching Bee.” New
York Times,8 January 1932, 27.
“Theatrical Notes.” New York Times,12 December 1931,
23.
“The Openings.” New York Times,3 January 1932, X1.
“The Stage.” New York Times,17 September 1940, 33.
Miller, Kelly(1863–1969)
The first African American admitted to Johns
Hopkins University, a dean at HOWARDUNIVER-
SITY, and the father of the accomplished playwright
MAYMILLERSULLIVAN.
Miller, who is remembered as the first
African-American graduate student in mathemat-
ics, was the sixth of 10 children born to Kelly
Miller, a free African American and Confederate
army soldier, and Elizabeth Roberts Miller, an en-
slaved woman.
Born in Winnsboro, South Carolina, he soon
demonstrated his talent for mathematics. He won
a scholarship to Howard University and earned his
bachelor of science degree in 1886. Miller went on
to study astronomy, physics, and mathematics at
Johns Hopkins, one of the first universities to es-
tablish a graduate program in mathematics. Miller
later earned a master’s degree and an LL.D from
Howard. He taught at the M STREET HIGH
SCHOOLin WASHINGTON, D.C. He enjoyed a
lengthy career at Howard, where he taught sociol-
ogy and was one of the school’s most highly re-
garded scholars and administrators.
Miller published much of his work in the years
preceding the Harlem Renaissance.
He married Annie May Butler, a schoolteacher
at the Baltimore Normal School, in July 1894. The
couple had five children, including May, an accom-
plished playwright, active member of the literary
circles in Washington, D.C., and close friend of
playwright GEORGIADOUGLASJOHNSON.Bibliography
Dyson, Walter. Howard University, The Capstone of
Negro Education, a History: 1867–1940.Washing-
ton, D.C.: The Graduate School, Howard Univer-
sity, 1941.
Jackson, W. Sherman. Kelly Miller and the Nadir of Race
Relations in America.New York: Garland, 1992.
Kelly Miller Papers, Moorland-Spingarn Research Cen-
ter, Howard University.
Logan, Rayford. Howard University: The First Hundred
Years, 1867–1967.New York: New York University
Press, 1969.
Miller, Kelly. Out of the House of Bondage: A Discussion of
the Race Problem.New York: T. Y. Crowell, 1914.Miller, May SeeSULLIVAN,MAYMILLER.Miller, May 347