About Sterling Allen Brown
Sterling Allen Brown 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 won the Graves Prize for his essay "The Comic Spirit in Shakespeare and Moliere" during his senior year at Williams. Brown was known for introducing his students to concepts in jazz, which, along with blues, spirituals and other forms of black music, formed an integral component of his poetry. In 1932, Brown published his first book of poetry Southern Road.
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