Benjamin Brawley
*Benjamin Brawley was born on this date in 1882. He was a Black author and educator.
Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Benjamin Griffith Brawley was the second son of Edward McKnight Brawley and Margaret Dickerson Brawley. He studied at Atlanta Baptist College (now Morehouse College), graduated in 1901, earned his second BA in 1906 from the University of Chicago, and received his master's degree from Harvard University in 1908. Brawley taught in the English departments at Atlanta Baptist College, Howard University, and Shaw University.
He was the first Dean of Morehouse College from 1912 to 1920 before returning to Howard University in 1937, where he served as English department chair. He wrote a good deal of poetry but is best known for his prose work, including History of Morehouse College (1917); The Negro Literature and Art(1918); A Short History of the American Negro (1919); A Short History of the English Drama (1921); A Social History of the American Negro (1921); A New Survey of English Literature (1925).
In 1927, Brawley declined the Second award and Bronze medal awarded to him by the William E. Harmon Foundation Award for Distinguished Achievement Among Negroes because. “... he had never done anything but first-class work." Benjamin Brawley died on February 1, 1939.
