I lived from 1861-1949.
I was from the United States, and am in the Americas category.
I influenced poet Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr.
Joseph Seamon Cotter was born on February 2nd 1861 He was a noted poet, educator, and playwright and father of the poet Joseph Seamon Cotter Jnr
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Joseph father was white (Michael J Cotter) and his mother was black (Martha Vaughan Cotter). He was brought up in poverty in Nelson County, Kentucky but he learned to read early and did have some formal education although not beyond the third grade. He left school early in order to take up work to help the family finances. He did however enrol in a night school when he was 22 and was quickly able to take up work as a teacher, a profession he followed for the rest of his life.
He was the principal of S. Coleridge-Taylor School for nearly 50 years. He joined the Negro Educational Association and the NAACP. However it is as a wruter that he has been best remembered, h e was a storyteller, a dramatist, and a poet.
Like many poets of that period much of his early work appeared in newspapers, in this case The Courier-Journal. One poem, The Tragedy of Pete, won first place in prize contest.
Joseph married Maria F. Cox, another teacher in 1891 and they had three children all of whom died young. The most famous was Joseph Seamon Cotter Jnr who also became a poet and playright before his death in 1919.
Joseph Snr died on March 14, 1949.
JS
References:http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2742/Joseph_Seamon_Cotter_a_poetic_pioneer
Links of interest include
http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/2742/Joseph_Seamon_Cotter_a_poetic_pioneer
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