"A Brown Girl Dead" is a poem by Countee Cullen. Cullen's poem was initially written in 1923 and published in 1933.
Born in 1903, Countee Cullen was one of the most important voices in the 20th century and in the Harlem Renaissance, in which he played a significant part. His work, which was informed by his experiences growing up as a mixed-race adopted child and as the adopted son of a clergyman, is widely regarded as being incredibly historically important to the history of African Americans and the United States as a whole.
Although only a total of eight lines, Cullen's poem "A Brown Girl Dead" is one of his - and the time period's - most important works. It tells the tragic story of a girl, presumably a black girl, who has died. The girl's mother, who had very little money to her name, had to pawn her cherished wedding ring to afford her daughter's wedding to dress her in white. The mother's wedding ring symbolized her desire to the mother - as well as her daughter's desire - to get married. And the poem itself is a commentary on the way black people are treated by society compared to how white people are treated by society.
Singer Margaret Bonds later revised and adapted the poem into a song, which she released in 1956, 23 years after the poem's initial publication. And Bonds' song is how Cullen's work is best known. Despite the long period between when the poem was written, published, and then released as a song, Bonds' song - and thus, Cullen's poem - remains an endearing part of pop culture.
