Dudley Randall was born on January 19, 1914 in Washington DC and died on August 2, 2000 in Southfield, Michigan. His mother Ada Viloa was a teacher and his father Arthur George Clyde Randall was a Congregational minister. His father was very interested in politics which is why Dudley and his brother listened to prominent black speakers. When Randall was about nine years old, he and his family moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1920. At the age of thirteen he had his first poem published in the Detroit Free Press. By the age of sixteen he had graduated from high school. After graduation, he went to work for a blast furnace at the Rouge plant of the Ford Motor Company. After working at Ford for five years, Randall took a job at the United States Post Office as a clerk and letter carrier. In July 1943 he was drafted into the United States Air Force and served during World War II. After returning from the war, he returned to work at the post office. In 1949, while working at the post office, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and a master's degree in Library Science....