heritage. Bro. Countee Cullen, noted poet of the Harlem Renaissance, was married for a time to Bro. W.E.B. Du Bois’s daughter, Yolande. Bro. Cullen’s poem “Heritage” was one of the most widely quoted poems of the era.
What is Africa to me: Copper sun or scarlet sea, Jungle star or jungle track, Strong bronzed men, or regal black Women from whose loins I sprang When the birds of Eden sang? One three centuries removed From the scenes his fathers loved, Spicy grove, cinnamon tree, What is Africa to me?16 Brother Duke Ellington was a leading composer and bandleader of the era. In fact, during his career, he composed more than 1,000 musical compositions, including such famous pieces as “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got that Swing,” “Satin Doll” and “Sophisticated Lady.” Brother Nobel Sissle was also a leading bandleader and composer during the Harlem Renaissance. With Eubie Blake, he helped to open the musical foundations of the era with “Shuffle Along” in 1921. He wrote the famous song, “I’m Just Wild About Harry,” which President Harry S. Truman adopted as a campaign song in 1948. Bro. Paul Robeson was without peer as a singer and actor of stage and screen. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Rutgers University, where he was class valedictorian, he was also a star athlete in football, basketball, baseball, and track. He earned a law degree from Columbia University in 1922 while playing professional football in the National Football League. Together with Brothers W.E.B. Du Bois and Max Yergan, he formed the Council on African Affairs. At the 1946 General Convention, Bro. Robeson criticized U.S. financial and military support of imperialism in Africa, domestic policies that allowed for the continuation of lynching in the United States, the poll tax which limited the right of African Americans to vote, and failure to establish a national commission to fight unfair labor practices. He and Bro. Du Bois were later blacklisted by the U.S. government for alleged subversive activities, which primarily involved advocating for civil and human rights as well as African independence.17 During the Harlem Renaissance, Brothers Du Bois as editor of the NAACP’s Crisis Magazine and Charles S. Johnson as editor of the National Urban League’s 16 Countee Cullen, On These I Stand: An Anthology of the Best Poems of Countee Cullen. London: Harper, 1947. 17 Murali Balaji, The Professor and the Pupil: The Politics of W.E.B. Du Bois and Paul Robeson. New York: Nation Books, 2007
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