intellectual. He became the first African American
to enroll at Johns Hopkins University, a pioneer in
the field of sociology, and one of the cofounders of
the impressive Moorland-Spingarn collection at
Howard University. May Miller grew up in WASH-
INGTON, D.C., and was fortunate to be ensconced
in the encouraging and motivated intellectual
African-American communities of the city. She at-
tended DUNBARHIGHSCHOOLand, like Willis
Richardson and others, gained much from teachers
MARYBURRILL and ANGELINA WELD GRIMKÉ.
She went on to study at Howard and graduated in
- She became a teacher at the Frederick Dou-
glass High School in Baltimore. She taught dance,
drama, and speech at the school where she re-
mained on staff for some 20 years. Miller married
John “Bud” Sullivan, a Washington, D.C., high
school principal and later an accountant with the
U.S. Postal Service, in 1940. She retired from
teaching three years later and devoted much of her
time to writing poetry and promoting African-
American literature.
An especially enthusiastic writer, Miller began
writing at an early age. Her schooling allowed her
to refine further her skills. It was MARYBURRILL
whose encouragement prompted her to complete
her first play, Pandora’s Box,a work that was pub-
lished in 1914 in the school magazine. At Howard
University she joined the HOWARDUNIVERSITY
PLAYERS, a talented undergraduate troupe that
university professor WILLIS RICHARDSON estab-
lished in 1919 with support from his colleague
ALAINLOCKE. She received enormous encourage-
ment from her professor T. MONTGOMERYGRE-
GORY and was the first student to receive a
prestigious award for drama. At the time of her
graduation from Howard, she was awarded a prize
for Within the Shadows,a one-act play. In 1925 her
prizewinning play The Bog Guidesignaled her po-
tential as a leader in the burgeoning theater move-
ment of the Harlem Renaissance. She was awarded
third prize by judges Montgomery Gregory, Robert
Benchley, and others for the work that she submit-
ted to the 1924–25 Opportunity literary contest
that also saw ZORANEALEHURSTONwin second
prize for her play COLORSTRUCK.The following
year, Miller won one of the four honorable men-
tion certificates for her play The Cuss’d Thingin
the competition that saw first and second prizes go
to FRANKWILSONand JOHNMATHEUS, respec-
tively. Miller also saw her work featured in notable
issues of periodicals such as the April 1929 issue of
Carolina Magazinethat was devoted to African-
American plays. Her work, Scratches, appeared
alongside plays by LEWIS ALEXANDER, EULALIE
SPENCE, Willis Richardson, and John Matheus.
Miller’s works reflected her awareness of con-
temporary social and political issues, her apprecia-
tion of racial tensions, and her commitment to
promoting African-American history. Her collec-
tion of historical plays included works that hon-
ored intrepid antebellum women and that revisited
moving biblical themes. Miller collaborated with
Willis Richardson, a pioneering Washington, D.C.,
playwright, on an important anthology entitled
NEGROHISTORY INTHIRTEENPLAYS.That volume
included four of her own compositions, Christophe’s
Daughters, Harriet Tubman, Samory,and Sojourner
Truth. In 1930 she contributed two plays to
Richardson’s innovative anthology PLAYS AND
PAGEANTS FROM THELIFE OF THENEGRO.The
collection of plays for children and young people
also featured contributions by MAUD CUNEY
HARE, John Matheus, and EDWARD MCCOO.
Richardson called attention to Miller, in particular,
in his introduction, noting that she was “[o]ne of
the most promising of the Negro playwrights” of
the day. The collection included GRAVENIMAGES,
a work about Moses, his sister Miriam, and racial
prejudice, and RIDING THEGOAT,a comedic critique
about African-American lodge life and expectations.
Miller also contributed to numerous periodicals in-
cluding the THENATION,THENEWYORKTIMES,
Poetry, Phylon, Arts Quarterly,and Writer.
Sullivan was an integral part of the Washing-
ton, D.C., literary community, and she enjoyed es-
pecially close ties to GEORGIA DOUGLAS
JOHNSON, an earnest poet, insightful playwright,
and beloved mentor of many. It was Sullivan who
sat with Johnson as she lay on her deathbed. Her
tender attention to Johnson is perhaps best illus-
trated by the fact that she held her friend’s hand
and repeated over and over, “Poet Georgia Douglas
Johnson,” an act of love that continued to rein-
force Johnson’s tireless and ambitious efforts to
sustain a writing career.
Sullivan continued to publish long after the
Harlem Renaissance ended. Her last play, Free-502 Sullivan, May Miller