Which African American poet was the first to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry?

Gwendolyn Brooks was the first African American poet to win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

She received the 1950 award for Annie Allen, a 1949 collection tracing an African American girl’s development from childhood into womanhood. The book combines personal observation with social criticism, addressing racism, poverty, war, family, and the pressures placed on Black women.

Brooks was born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1917, but grew up in Chicago, where the city’s Black communities and everyday lives became central to her poetry. Her earlier collection, A Street in Bronzeville, had already established her reputation, but Annie Allen brought national recognition. Its centerpiece, “The Anniad,” is an ambitious long poem whose title echoes Virgil’s Aeneid.

A common mix-up is confusing Brooks’s achievement with later Pulitzer milestones. Rita Dove became the first African American poet to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate, while Brooks was the first African American recipient of any Pulitzer Prize. She later became Illinois Poet Laureate and continued publishing influential poetry for decades.