Early was born on April 21, 1952, in Philadelphia, the son of Henry Early and Florence Fernandez Oglesby. His father, a baker, died when Early was nine months old, leaving his mother, a preschool teacher, to raise him and his two sisters on her own. Living in a poor area of the city, Early grew up befriending members of the Fifth and the South Street gangs, though he never became a member himself. Instead he focused on scholarly pursuits, graduating
cum laude from the
University of Pennsylvania in 1974. During Early's undergraduate years, he was introduced to the writings of
Amiri Baraka and later credited the poet and
playwright with influencing his own work. Early developed much of his writing style through involvement with the university newspaper. Ironically, his first major piece was a journalistic foray into the gang-related murder of a cousin. After earning his B.A. degree, Early remained in Philadelphia, where he became employed by the city government. He also spent six months monitoring gang activities through the Crisis Intervention Network, before resuming his course work at
Cornell University, where he eventually earned a doctorate in English literature in 1982. Early landed his first teaching job as an assistant professor of black studies in
Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis in 1982. He steadily rose to a full professorship in both the English and the renamed African and Afro-American studies departments by 1990. In 2013, Early was inducted into the
St. Louis Walk of Fame. On February 19, 2022, the Chicago suburb of
Park Forest rededicated Early Street, initially named for the Confederate general, in Gerald Early's honor in an effort to celebrate the historic diversity of the village. ==Works==