Harlem Renaissance Poet: Countee Cullen

Incident

Once riding in old Baltimore,

Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,

I saw a Baltimorean

Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,

And he was no whit bigger,

And so I smiled, but he poked out

His tongue, and called me, "Nigger."

I saw the whole of Baltimore

From May until December;

Of all the things that happened there

That's all that I remember.

Countee Cullen was a leading figure along with others who helped to define the Harlem Renaissance. Countee Cullen suffered high blood pressure and uremic poisoning and died suddenly on January 9, 1946. He was 42.  Read more...

Sources:  wikipedia, blackfacts.com, and American National Biography Online