Title Page | Collection Summary | Biographical/Organizational Note | Scope and Content | Arrangement
Biographical Note
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1921, June 15 | Born, Alliance, Nebr. |
| 1942-1944 | Confidential secretary to General Benjamin O. Davis, Assistant Inspector General, United States Army |
| 1944-1946 | Staff sergeant, 93rd Infantry Division, United States Army |
| 1950 | B.A., Howard University, Washington, D.C. Married Mattie Etha Johnson (divorced 1974) |
| 1953 | M.A., Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. |
| 1954-1956 | Taught at Harlem YWCA Business School, New York, N.Y. |
| 1957-1983 | Instructor of English (1957-1964), assistant professor (1965-1969), associate professor (1970-1972), and professor (1973-1983), City College of the City University of New York, New York, N.Y. |
| 1962 | Ph.D., Columbia University, New York, N.Y. |
| 1966 | Developed and taught first course in African-American poetry at City College of the City University of New York, New York, N.Y. Defeated in election for seat on board of education, Mount Vernon, N.Y. |
| 1967 | Published Langston Hughes (New York: Twayne. 192 pp.) |
| 1968 | Published Dark Symphony: Negro Literature in America with Theodore L. Gross (New York: Free Press. 604 pp.) Published The Treehouse and Other Poems (Detroit: Broadside Press. 24 pp.) |
| 1968-1969 | Fulbright professor, University of Grenoble, France |
| 1970 | Published Panther Man (Detroit: Broadside Press. 32 pp.) |
| 1971-1973 | Visiting professor, University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France |
| 1972 | Published How I Write/2 with MacKinlay Kantor and Lawrence Osgood (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 256 pp.) Met Marie-France Bertrand (née Plassard) in France |
| 1975-1976 | Fulbright professorship, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland |
| 1978 | Published Black Man Abroad: The Toulouse Poems (Detroit: Lotus Press. 76 pp.) |
| 1980 | Published A Chisel in the Dark: Poems Selected and New (Detroit: Lotus Press. 73 pp.) |
| 1980-1981 | Visiting professor, University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France |
| 1983 | Published A Poet's Mind (New York: Regents. 85pp.) Published The Broken Bowl: New and Uncollected Poems (Detroit: Lotus Press. 85 pp.) |
| 1984 | Retired; established residence in France |
| 1987 | Published Deadly James and Other Poems (Detroit: Lotus Press. 82 pp.) |
| 1991 | Published Whole Grain: Collected Poems, 1958-1989 (Detroit: Lotus Press. 396 pp.) |
| 1992 | Published De la rage au coeur with Jean Migrenne and Michel Fabre (Thaon, France: Amiot/Lenganey. 173 pp.) |
| 1995 | Published Reaching for Mumia: 16 Hauku (France: L'insomnique.) |
| 1999 | Published Jass from the Haiku King (Detroit: Broadside Press. 122 pp.) |
| 2001 | Published The Force and the Reckoning (Detroit: Broadside Press. 364 pp.) |
| 2013, Sept. 28 | Died, Paris, France |