author
Walter Hawkins
An early 20th-century poet and freethinker, this overlooked voice helped bridge older literary traditions and the rising energy of Black modern writing. His work offers a glimpse of a moment when African American poetry was beginning to change in bold new ways.
1 Audiobook
Old John Brown, the man whose soul is marching on
by Walter Hawkins
About the author
Born in North Carolina in the 1880s, Walter Everette Hawkins became known as a poet, mail clerk, and freethinker. Reference sources describe him as an important figure in the shift from the more traditional styles of the 19th century toward the more forceful Black writing that would later flourish in the Harlem Renaissance.
He is the author of Chords and Discords (1920). The Academy of American Poets notes that he worked as a mail clerk in Washington, D.C., and his writing reflects a period of change in both American literature and Black intellectual life.
Though he is not widely known today, Hawkins remains a compelling literary figure for readers interested in the roots of modern African American poetry and the writers who helped shape that transition.