orig. Countee Porter
born May 30, 1903, Louisville, Ky.?, U.S.
died Jan. 9, 1946, New York, N.Y.
U.S. poet of the Harlem Renaissance .
Reared in New York City, he was unofficially adopted at age 15 by a minister. He won a citywide poetry contest and later attended New York and Harvard universities, winning academic honours. His first collection of poems, Color (1925), received critical acclaim while he was still in college. Copper Sun (1927) was criticized in the black community for not giving enough attention to the issue of race. He taught in the city's public schools from 1934 until his death.