Sterling A. Brown (Sterling Brown; Sterling Allen Brown): Author Page
"Sterling Allen Brown (May 1, 1901 – January 13, 1989) was an American professor, folklorist, poet, and literary critic. He chiefly studied black culture of the Southern United States and was a professor at Howard University for most of his career. Brown was the first Poet Laureate of the District of Columbia."
"Brown was born May 1, 1901, on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C., where his father, Sterling N. Brown, a former slave, was a prominent minister and professor at Howard University Divinity School.[1][2] His mother Grace Adelaide Brown, who had been the valedictorian of her class at Fisk University,[3] taught in D.C. public schools for more than 50 years. Both his parents grew up in Tennessee and often shared stories with Brown and his sister Mary Edna Brown (a founder of Delta Sigma Theta sorority) about famous leaders such as Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington.[1]
Brown's early childhood was spent on a farm on Whiskey Bottom Road in Howard County, Maryland. He was educated at Waterford Oaks Elementary and Dunbar High School, where he graduated as the top student. He received a scholarship to attend Williams College in Massachusetts. Graduating from Williams Phi Beta Kappa in 1922, he continued his studies at Harvard University, receiving an MA in English a year later"