Much of the beginning of Countee Cullen's life is unknown, it is said that he could have been born in New York City, Louisville, Kentucky, or Baltimore, Maryland on May 30, 1903. When he was nine years old he was brought to live with Elizabeth Porter (possibly his grandmother). When she died in 1918, he was adopted by Reverend Fredrick Cullen (unsure if official). In high school, he was top of his class. He won many city-wide poetry contests while he was still in high school. He went to New York University, and he finished his first book Color, a collection of poems that he wrote. He also went to Harvard University to get a master’s in English and French. 

Cullen started to become more widely known in the late 1920s, some of his famous works were, From The Dark Tower, and The Ballad of the Brown Girl: An Old Ballad retold. His poems were known for their simple style, which even caught the attention of white people as well. Cullen won many awards such as the Witter Bynner Poetry contest, Poetry magazine's John Reed memorial prize, and the Amy Spingarn Award of the Crisis magazine. He was also the second black man to win a Guggenheim fellowship. Cullen was an important figure in the Harlem Renaissance because wrote poems that made people think about black people as people. Countee Cullen died on January 9, 1946, as not only a poet but as an essential part of history