Sterling Brown's poem "Strong Men," from his book entitled Southern Road (1931), best celebrates the indomitable spirit of Black people in the face of racism and poverty and political exploitation. The poem captures the horrors of the Middle Passage and reflects the "idea of Black stoicism," Brown explains in Southern Road. Brown was a distinguished poet, critic, scholar, and teacher of Black life and culture. His work reveals the continuity of Black expression as well as the triumphs and failures, hopes and fears, foibles and strengths of America's Everyman.

Born on May 1, 1901, in a house on Sixth and Fairmount in Washington, DC, Brown was the last of six children born to Reverend Sterling Nelson and Adelaid Allen Brown. He grew up on the campus of Howard University, where his father taught in the School of Religion.

After establishing contacts with Howardites and meeting Jean Toomer (a notable writer, critic, and poet), Brown left home for Williams College to become a writer. In 1923, a year after Brown secured a B.A. along with a Phi Beta Kappa key, he obtained his M.A. from Harvard University. Brown followed in his father's footsteps by returning to Howard to teach.

During Brown's fifty-year stay at Howard University, he taught the first courses in Black literature. In those years he spent his energy interpreting and disseminating knowledge of Black culture and achievements. According to literary critic Joanne V. Gabbien, "During the 1930s and 1940s, Brown's studies of the folk experience and culture were the fullest of any in the field." In his book, The Negro in American Fiction (1937), Brown shows parallels of how treatment of an oppressed group in literature reflects its treatment in life. His pioneering work brought recognition to African-American literature and folklore. He was recognized as a Dean of African-American Literature and one of the principal architects of Black criticism. Students said Brown "tied literature in with life, music, justice, and the struggle for existence."

Essay by Alain Joseph of Howard University