Sterling A. Brown Residence (Washington, D.C.)

 house, place with historical importance

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Sterling Brown (1901-1989) was a native Washingtonian and the son of Rev. Sterling N. Brown, former pastor of the Lincoln Temple Congregational Church. Brown's family was part of the city's influential middle class. He graduated from Dunbar High School and Williams College and later received an M.A. in English from Harvard University. Brown taught at several historically black colleges before returning to Washington in 1929 to teach in the English Department at Howard University. He remained at Howard for 40 years, mentoring countless students. Brown was a central figure of the New Negro Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s and the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. In 1984 he was named the city's first poet laureate.