Countee Cullen (1903-1946)

Countee Cullens born as Countee LeRoy Porter was born in Louisville, Kentucy or Baltimore. This is said from different sources. Cullen was possibly abandoned by his mother and reared by a woman called Mrs Porter. She was probably his paternal grandmother.

Mrs. Porter brought Countee to Harlem, when he was nine years old. When he was fifteen years old, he was adopted by Reverend F.A. Cullen. (Minister of Salem M:E: Church, one of the largest congregations of Harlem. Reverend Cullen became later the head of the Harlem chapter of NAACP. His real mother just contacted him firstly, when he became famous in the 1920s.

Cullens poetry conveyed life. His collection is called "color" and was printed in 1925. The Harlem Renaissance was influenced by his work and put it to a new height because he had the ability to show social realities. It is said that he was criticized for being conventional, for using the British romantic poets as his models, and for insisting that poetry in general should be free of racial and political matters. However, in one of his finest poem, "Heritage", he shows his relationship to Africa.