"Effie Lee Newsome"{1885-1979}

Born Mary Effie Lee in Philadelphia,was a Harlem Renaissance writer.She mostly wrote children's poems,and was the first African-American poet whose work was mostly in this area.She edited a column in The Crisis from 1925 until 1929,called "The Little Page,"where she made drawlings and wrote poetry for children and parables about being young and African American in 1920s.Effie also illustrated for children's magazines and edited children's columns for Opportunity.

She also wrote poems for adults,which included in The Poetry of the Negro (1949).Her only volume of poetry was Gladiola Gardens (1940).


In addition to her writing,she worked as a librarian at an elementary school in Wilberforce,Ohio.Effie attended Wilberforce University,Oberlin College,the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,and the University of Pennsylvania.


Mary Effie Lee,better known as Effie Lee Newsome,was born in Philadelphia,to parents Benjamin Franklin & Mary Elizabeth Ashe Lee.Her daddy was a Bishop and led the family from Texas to Ohio during Effie's childhood.Effie would later receive her higher education from Wilberforce University (1901-1904),Oberlin College (1904-1905),the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts (1907-1908),and the University of Pennsylvania (1911-1914).


Starting in 1917,Effie began working with W.E.B.Du Bois on The Crisis Magazine.Effie would continue to contribute to a section of the Crisis known as The Little Page,until 1934.In 1920,Mary married Rev.Henry Nesby Newsome and thereafter was known as Effie Lee Newsome.After marriage,both Effie and Rev.Henry moved to Birmingham,Alabama,later relocated to Wilberforce,Ohio.While in Ohio,Effie worked as a librarian in an elementary school and continued to build her career as a writer during the Harlem Renaissance.


Effie was primarily known as a nature poet and and contributor to children's literature her impression upon the people of the Harlem Renaissance was clear.Upon starting to write for the Crisis in 1917,and then in 1925,writing for her own section of the magazine known as the Little Page,Effie was given a specific task.
It was Effie's job to teach the African American youth to be colored was to be beautiful.Such ideas were present in poems such as Effie's To a Black Boy.She was was also expected to teach the African American youth about their history as a people and how to turn the anger toward white American into love and compassion.Effie's contribution to children's literature was aligned to some degree with that of W.E.B. Du Bois,her editor in the early days of the NAACP.Their work together is an important part of Effie's story,for it was Effie's job to carry on within the pages of The Crisis Magazine (the NAACP monthly) what W.E.B.had tried to achieve in his periodical for children,the Brownies' Book (also under NAACP auspieces).