In today’s society, the trending topic is “Black Lives Matter”, but according to Arna Bontemps this has always been a big deal. In early life, Arna Wendell Bontemps’ developed values and beliefs after graduating college, becoming a novelist and librarian, also well-known for his work experience as a poet. He graduated from Pacific Union College where he accepted a teaching position in Harlem at the height of the Harlem Renaissance. During this time, Arna published numerous novels varying in genre. Arna died at the age of seventy leaving behind many jobs such as a poet, a novelist, a children’s writer, an editor, a librarian and historian that helped shaped African American literature. Many events from Arna Bontemps early life caused the development of his charter jumpstarted his career. This became the outstanding start of his legacy. Arna was born on October 13, 1902 in a bedroom in his grandfather’s home at the corner of Ninth and Winn Streets in Alexandria, Louisiana. His father Paul Bismark Bontemps worked as a bricklayer and his mother Maria Carolina Pembroke Bontemps worked as a schoolteacher (Brown 54). Around the time that Arnaud (nicknamed…show more content… “His birthplace , located at 1327 Third street , has been restored and converted for use as the Bontemps African American Museum”(Jones par 2).Arna Bontemps Museum and Cultural Center was the first African American museum in Louisiana when it opened. Arna moved to New York City in 1924 after graduation from Pacific Union College in Angwin, California. He accepted a teaching position in Harlem during the peak of the Harlem renaissance. “His graceful poems are hallmarks of the Harlem Renaissance, a period of intense creativity among black artists living in New York City’s Harlem neighborhood during the 1920s and 1930s” (par 1). Arna believed that he could change the world through his kid books, performance, work and
