TWA Poet: Arnaud Bontemps

1902 - 1973

It’s the birthday of Harlem Renaissance writer Arnaud “Arna” Wendell Bontemps, born in Alexandria, Louisiana (1902). For three generations all the men in his family had been brick masons but after his mother’s death when he was 12 his father sent him to a private school where he was the only black student. He went on to be the first member of his family…