Ralph ellison biography timeline with pictures
How It All Went Down
Mar 1, 1913
Ralph Ellison Born
Ralph Waldo Ellison is born in Oklahoma City, the second of three sons born to Lewis Alfred Ellison and Ida Millsap Ellison. His older brother died before Ellison was born. His parents name their new son after the writer Ralph Waldo Emerson. (Scholars dispute the year of his birth, with some accounts placing it in 1914 instead.)
1916
Herbert Ellison Born
Ellison's younger brother Herbert is born.
1917
Ellison's Father Dies
Lewis Ellison works delivering ice and coal to businesses and homes in Oklahoma City. One day at work, when Ellison's father attempts to hoist a hundred-point block of ice, a shard stabs him in the stomach. Lewis Ellison later dies from his injuries, leaving Ida to support her two young sons alone. She is forced to take on a number of jobs in order to support the young family.
1921
Ellison Learns the Trumpet
At the age of eight, Ellison begins playing the trumpet, which sparks a lifelong passio