Sterling Allen Brown
Biographic Data
| ID | 3671977 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sterling Allen Brown |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sterling Allen |
| FAMILY NAME | Brown |
| SIGNATURE | BROWN S A |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Sterling A. Brown’s, A Negro Looks At The South
Using oral history and the printed word, Sterling A. Brown set out during the Second World War to capture the response of African Americans, primarily living in the South, to America's involvement in the war and how it affected them. These responses, brought together in extended, non-fiction essays of many different types, illustrate the diversity of opinions in the Black South about the war and the war period in America. For nearly sixteen years…
Strong Men
Strong Men Sterling A. Brown The young men keep coming onThe strong men keep coming on. —Sandburg They dragged you from homeland,They chained you in coffles,They huddled you spoon-fashion in filthy hatches,They sold you to give a few gentlemen ease. They broke you in like oxen,They scourged you,They branded you,They made your women breeders,They swelled your numbers with bastards. . . .They taught you the religion they disgraced. You sang: Keep a…
Steady and Unaccusing
“Steady and Unaccusing”: An Interview with Sterling A. Brown John Edgar Tidwell (bio) and John S. Wright (bio) Since the early 1980s a series of symposia, public and academic awards, and other recognitions have testified to continuing popular and scholarly interest in Sterling A. Brown, poet, literary critic, teacher, anthologist, and raconteur. The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown (Harper & Row), for example, received the Lenore Marshall Poe…
Georgia Sketches
Georgia Sketches * Sterling A. Brown I. I Visit Wren’s Nest For a gentler reminiscence of Atlanta’s past, I went out to see “Wren’s Nest,” along with Griff Davis, a young photographer. This modest old home in West End, with many gables and gingerbread curlycues, is a Mecca for American school children and their teachers, who want to see where the kindly Joel Chandler Harris created Uncle Remus, Brer Tortoise and Sister Cow. Well, so did I: so I r…
Old Lem
Old Lem Sterling A. Brown I talked to old Lem and old Lem said: “They weigh the cotton They store the corn We only good enough To work the rows; They run the commissary They keep the books We gotta be grateful For being cheated; Whippersnapper clerks Call us out of our name We got to say mister To spindling boys They make our figgers Turn somersets We buck in the middle Say, “Thankyuh, sah.” They don’t come by ones They don’t come by twos But the…
For a Certain Youngster
Callaloo - Volume 21, Number 4, Fall 1998
Southern Road
Southern Road Sterling A. Brown Swing dat hammer—hunh— Steady, bo'; Swing dat hammer—hunh— Steady, bo'; Ain't no rush, bebby, Long ways to go. Burner tore his—hunh— Black heart away; Burner tore his—hunh— Black heart away; Got me life, bebby, An' a day. Gal's on Fifth Street—hunh— Son done gone; Gal's on Fifth Street—hunh— Son done gone; Wife's in de ward, bebby, Babe's not bo'n. My ole man died—hunh— Cussin' me; My ole man died—hunh— Cussin' me;…
Ma Rainey
Ma Rainey Sterling A. Brown I When Ma Rainey Comes to town, Folks from anyplace Miles aroun’, From Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff, Flocks in to hear Ma do her stuff; Comes flivverin’ in, Or ridin’ mules, Or packed in trains, Picknickin’ fools. . . . That’s what it’s like, Fo’ miles on down, To New Orleans delta An’ Mobile town, When Ma hits Anywheres aroun’. II Dey comes to hear Ma Rainey from de little river settlements, From blackbottorn cornrows…
The Muted South
The Muted South * Sterling A. Brown 1. Meekness In Bronze In Natchitoches, Louisiana, at Washington and Lafayette Streets, a famous statue was “erected by the City . . . in Grateful Recognition of the Arduous and Faithful Service of the Good Darkies of Louisiana.” An old Negro, clad in a prince-albert, stands on a flower-decked pedestal. His shoulders are bent by age, his knees by servility; his head is bowed like Chesterfield’s valet; his missha…
Let Me Be wid Ole Jazzbo
“Let Me Be With Ole Jazzbo”: An Interview with Sterling A. Brown * Charles H. Rowell An’ all dat Big Boy axes When time comes fo’ to go, Lemme be wid John Henry, steel drivin’ man, Lemme be wid old Jazzbo, Lemme be wid ole Jazzbo. . . . —From “Odyssey of Big Boy,” Sterling A. Brown This interview was taped in two sessions at Professor Brown’s home in Washington, D.C., during April 1974. ROWELL In an essay on the blues, you say that Irving Berlin’…
Remembering Nat Turner
Callaloo - Volume 21, Number 4, Fall 1998
Unhistoric History
Unhistoric History * Sterling A. Brown I Prof. James Truslow Adams in an article called “Vital Flaws in New Biographies” tells us of the great increase in recent years of biographies, estimating the daily average output of England, America, France, and Germany at six a day. Readers of one type of biography want a “scientific” interpretation of their subject; of the other, amusement and the feeding of their ego. “We know our inferiority and like e…
And/Or
And/Or * Sterling A. Brown For safety’s sake, though he is a lieutenant in the army now and may never come back to the South, let us call him Houston. He was short and frail, with a dark brown sensitive face. I first met him at the FEPC hearings in Birmingham when, on short acquaintance, he revealed to me how he was burned up by conditions in Dixie. To judge from his twang, he was southern-born, and he was Tuskegee trained, but he had the rather …
After the Storm
After the Storm Sterling A. Brown There is a pathetic beauty in it all; O’erhead the murky, sullen rain-clouds pass, The sun’s first darting rays have pierced the mass, Just now so grim, so gray. Again the call Is heard of storm-hushed robins. Maples tall, To show the regal silver of their class, Rustle their thirst-slaked leaves and on the grass, Drenched into higher color, some last drops fall. ‘Tis like that heart, whose happiness excelled All…
"Slim Hears "The Call
Slim Hears “The Call” Sterling A. Brown I Down at the barbershop Slim had the floor, “Ain’t never been so Far down before. “So ragged, I make a jaybird About to moult, Look like he got on gloves An’ a overcoat. “Got to walk backwards All de time Jes’ a-puttin’ on front Wid a bare behime. “Been down to skin and bones Gittin’ down to de gristle, So de call sounds louder Dan a factory whistle. “Big holes is the onlies’ Things in my pocket, So bein’ …
Old Lem
Old Lem Sterling A. Brown I talked to old Lem and old Lem said: “They weigh the cotton They store the corn We only good enough To work the rows; They run the commissary They keep the books We gotta be grateful For being cheated; Whippersnapper clerks Call us out of our name We got to say mister To spindling boys They make our figgers Turn somersets We buck in the middle Say, “Thankyuh, sah.” They don’t come by ones They don’t come by twos But the…
Strong Men
Strong Men Sterling A. Brown The young men keep coming onThe strong men keep coming on. —Sandburg They dragged you from homeland,They chained you in coffles,They huddled you spoon-fashion in filthy hatches,They sold you to give a few gentlemen ease. They broke you in like oxen,They scourged you,They branded you,They made your women breeders,They swelled your numbers with bastards. . . .They taught you the religion they disgraced. You sang: Keep a…
Steady and Unaccusing
“Steady and Unaccusing”: An Interview with Sterling A. Brown John Edgar Tidwell (bio) and John S. Wright (bio) Since the early 1980s a series of symposia, public and academic awards, and other recognitions have testified to continuing popular and scholarly interest in Sterling A. Brown, poet, literary critic, teacher, anthologist, and raconteur. The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown (Harper & Row), for example, received the Lenore Marshall Poe…
Georgia Sketches
Georgia Sketches * Sterling A. Brown I. I Visit Wren’s Nest For a gentler reminiscence of Atlanta’s past, I went out to see “Wren’s Nest,” along with Griff Davis, a young photographer. This modest old home in West End, with many gables and gingerbread curlycues, is a Mecca for American school children and their teachers, who want to see where the kindly Joel Chandler Harris created Uncle Remus, Brer Tortoise and Sister Cow. Well, so did I: so I r…
Old Lem
Old Lem Sterling A. Brown I talked to old Lem and old Lem said: “They weigh the cotton They store the corn We only good enough To work the rows; They run the commissary They keep the books We gotta be grateful For being cheated; Whippersnapper clerks Call us out of our name We got to say mister To spindling boys They make our figgers Turn somersets We buck in the middle Say, “Thankyuh, sah.” They don’t come by ones They don’t come by twos But the…
For a Certain Youngster
Callaloo - Volume 21, Number 4, Fall 1998
Southern Road
Southern Road Sterling A. Brown Swing dat hammer—hunh— Steady, bo'; Swing dat hammer—hunh— Steady, bo'; Ain't no rush, bebby, Long ways to go. Burner tore his—hunh— Black heart away; Burner tore his—hunh— Black heart away; Got me life, bebby, An' a day. Gal's on Fifth Street—hunh— Son done gone; Gal's on Fifth Street—hunh— Son done gone; Wife's in de ward, bebby, Babe's not bo'n. My ole man died—hunh— Cussin' me; My ole man died—hunh— Cussin' me;…
Ma Rainey
Ma Rainey Sterling A. Brown I When Ma Rainey Comes to town, Folks from anyplace Miles aroun’, From Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff, Flocks in to hear Ma do her stuff; Comes flivverin’ in, Or ridin’ mules, Or packed in trains, Picknickin’ fools. . . . That’s what it’s like, Fo’ miles on down, To New Orleans delta An’ Mobile town, When Ma hits Anywheres aroun’. II Dey comes to hear Ma Rainey from de little river settlements, From blackbottorn cornrows…
The Muted South
The Muted South * Sterling A. Brown 1. Meekness In Bronze In Natchitoches, Louisiana, at Washington and Lafayette Streets, a famous statue was “erected by the City . . . in Grateful Recognition of the Arduous and Faithful Service of the Good Darkies of Louisiana.” An old Negro, clad in a prince-albert, stands on a flower-decked pedestal. His shoulders are bent by age, his knees by servility; his head is bowed like Chesterfield’s valet; his missha…
Let Me Be wid Ole Jazzbo
“Let Me Be With Ole Jazzbo”: An Interview with Sterling A. Brown * Charles H. Rowell An’ all dat Big Boy axes When time comes fo’ to go, Lemme be wid John Henry, steel drivin’ man, Lemme be wid old Jazzbo, Lemme be wid ole Jazzbo. . . . —From “Odyssey of Big Boy,” Sterling A. Brown This interview was taped in two sessions at Professor Brown’s home in Washington, D.C., during April 1974. ROWELL In an essay on the blues, you say that Irving Berlin’…
Remembering Nat Turner
Callaloo - Volume 21, Number 4, Fall 1998
Unhistoric History
Unhistoric History * Sterling A. Brown I Prof. James Truslow Adams in an article called “Vital Flaws in New Biographies” tells us of the great increase in recent years of biographies, estimating the daily average output of England, America, France, and Germany at six a day. Readers of one type of biography want a “scientific” interpretation of their subject; of the other, amusement and the feeding of their ego. “We know our inferiority and like e…
And/Or
And/Or * Sterling A. Brown For safety’s sake, though he is a lieutenant in the army now and may never come back to the South, let us call him Houston. He was short and frail, with a dark brown sensitive face. I first met him at the FEPC hearings in Birmingham when, on short acquaintance, he revealed to me how he was burned up by conditions in Dixie. To judge from his twang, he was southern-born, and he was Tuskegee trained, but he had the rather …
After the Storm
After the Storm Sterling A. Brown There is a pathetic beauty in it all; O’erhead the murky, sullen rain-clouds pass, The sun’s first darting rays have pierced the mass, Just now so grim, so gray. Again the call Is heard of storm-hushed robins. Maples tall, To show the regal silver of their class, Rustle their thirst-slaked leaves and on the grass, Drenched into higher color, some last drops fall. ‘Tis like that heart, whose happiness excelled All…
"Slim Hears "The Call
Slim Hears “The Call” Sterling A. Brown I Down at the barbershop Slim had the floor, “Ain’t never been so Far down before. “So ragged, I make a jaybird About to moult, Look like he got on gloves An’ a overcoat. “Got to walk backwards All de time Jes’ a-puttin’ on front Wid a bare behime. “Been down to skin and bones Gittin’ down to de gristle, So de call sounds louder Dan a factory whistle. “Big holes is the onlies’ Things in my pocket, So bein’ …
Sterling A. Brown’s, A Negro Looks At The South
Using oral history and the printed word, Sterling A. Brown set out during the Second World War to capture the response of African Americans, primarily living in the South, to America's involvement in the war and how it affected them. These responses, brought together in extended, non-fiction essays of many different types, illustrate the diversity of opinions in the Black South about the war and the war period in America. For nearly sixteen years…
History (14 works) · Art (11 works) · Art history (11 works) · Law (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Race, History, and American Society (6 works) · Ancient history (5 works) · Archaeology (5 works) · Psychology (4 works)