Sterling Brown: maker of community in academia

African American Review, Fall, 1997 by Joyce A.A. Camper

My questions for Howard and all of academe are: What have we done with the legacy of community that Sterling Brown left academia? Are we nurturing it? Or have we walled ourselves back in and forgotten those that Sterling would embrace, and what he created? Each of us must answer for ourselves. But keep this in mind. Miss Brooks tells us that we don't need another hero; we need lots of "Littles." Who are "Littles"? She says that they are "people who are not the masters of the world . . . they are ordinary people" (qtd. in Milloy B1). In agreement, I say that they are Sterling Brown's community. They are Calvin "Big Boy" Davis, Willie "the Lion" Smith, you, and me.

Works Cited

Black History Month Committee, ed. Sterling Brown: A UNUM Tribute. Washington: Black History Month UMUM Publishers, 1982.

Egypt, Ophelia Settle. "Memories of Sterling Brown Walking The Campus Like a Natural Man." Black 18-21.

Jones, Lewis W. "Sterling A. Brown: the Fisk Year - 1928-29." Black 50-54.

Miller, Jeanne-Marie A. "Sterling Allen Brown (1901-)." Profiles 3 (1983): 1-17.

Milloy, Courtland. "Well Versed in the Tasks That Remain." Washington Post 12 Feb. 1997: B5.

Ryan, William F. "Of Sterling Quality." American Visions Apr. 1987: 43-49.

West, Hollie I. "Sterling Brown: The Mentor of Thousands." Oracle Winter 1972: 19-24.

Joyce A.A. Camper wishes to express her appreciation to E. Ethelbert Miller, Director of the African American Resource Center at Howard University, whose records were invaluable in preparing this paper.