Sterling Allen Brown
| Sterling Allen Brown | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | 1 May 1901 Washington D.C. |
| Died | 13 January 1989 (aged 87) |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Sterling A. Brown |
| Education | Master's degree |
| Alma mater | Dunbar High School, Williams College, Harvard University |
| Employer | Howard University |
| Known for | Poetry |
| Spouse(s) | Daisy Turnbull |
| Parent(s) | Adelaide Allen and Sterling Nelson Brown |
Sterling Allen Brown (May 1, 1901 – January 13, 1989) was a black professor, folklorist, poet and literary critic. He chiefly studied black culture of the Southern United States and was a full professor at Howard University for most of his career. He was a visiting professor at several other notable institutions, including Vassar College, New York University (NYU), Atlanta University, and Yale University.
Brown was born 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. His mother Grace Adelaide Brown, who had been the valedictorian of her class at Fisk University, taught in D.C. public schools for more than 50 years. Both his parents grew up in Tennessee and often shared stories with Brown, their only child, who heard his father’s stories about famous leaders such as Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington.
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 a year later. That same year of 1923, he was hired as an English lecturer at Virginia Theological Seminary and College in Lynchburg, Virginia, a position he would hold for the next three years. He never pursued a doctorate degree, but several colleges he attended gave him honorary doctorates. Brown won "the Graves Prize for his essay 'The Comic Spirit in Shakespeare and Moliere'" in his time at Williams College.
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