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Ralph Waldo Ellison was born on March 1, 1914 to Lewis Alfred Ellison and Ida Millsap in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

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After the passing of his father in 1916, Ellison and his family moved to Gary, Indiana where his mother's brother lived. Unfortunately, they struggled to find jobs and moved back to Oklahoma City in 1921.There, Ellison took up jobs as a busboy, a shoeshine boy, hotel waiter, and dentist's assistant.

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Ellison applied twice to Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute and was accepted once he agreed to filling the trumpet spot in the school's orchestra. During his time there, he studied music but dropped out before qualifying for the degree.

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Ellison traveled to New York in hopes of finding of a career that would help him pay off his student loans. Upon his arrival, Ellison stayed at the Harlem YMCA where he ran into Alain Locke and Langston Hugh and promoted him to right his first serious work, a review of Waters Turpin’s novel These Low Grounds.

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The Communist Party offered hope and opportunity for African-American writers during the Great Depression. They sponsored newspapers and a biracial world of ideas in a racially divided America. While he wasn't very loud about his affiliation to the party, Ellison wrote and edited for communist publications and was a passionate Marxist.

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Ellison and Poindexter married in late 1938. As described by  Arnold Rampersad,  Ellison searched for a wife who was "physically attractive and smart who would love, honor, and obey him--but not challenge his intellect." However, that must've not applied for him because after admitting to an affair, their marriage quickly ended in 1943.

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Ellison enlisted in World War II as a Merchant Marine cook. As he served, Ellison began to think about ideas for the novel that would be known as Invisible Man. Once he returned home, long-time friend, Langston Hugh, set him up with Fanny McConnell, a civil rights activist, who would later become his wife.

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After returning from war, Ellison spent the following seven years creating the novel Invisible Man.The book explores an African American man's journey to finding himself in New York City in the 1930's. It all started with the line, "I am an invisible man", and the book spiraled into what it is today.

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After the publication of Invisible Man, Ellison went on to write a collection of critical essays named Shadow and Act and begin a novel that was left unfinished due to pancreatic cancer in April of 1994. It wasn't until after his death that the 2,000 pages of an unfinished novel were constructed into Juneteenth.

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In 2013, the book Invisible Man was banned from the schools in Randolph County, North Carolina due to its language and content. However, the ban was quickly reversed course after a national protest.