John Wesley Holloway

John Wesley Holloway was born in 1865 in Meriwether County, Georgia. His father, who had been enslaved, learned to read and write while still in bondage. After the Civil War, the elder Holloway became one of the first African American teachers in Georgia. Holloway was educated at Clark University in Atlanta (now, Clark Atlanta University) and Fisk University. At the latter school, he was, for a time, a member of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. 

Holloway wrote two collections of poetry: Bandanas, whose publisher and release date are unknown, and From the Desert (Neale Publishing Co., 1919). He was also featured in The Book of American Negro Poetry (Harcourt, Brace and Company, Inc., 1922), edited by James Weldon Johnson.

In addition to being a poet, Holloway was also an educator and served as a pastor in Anniston, Alabama, during the early- to mid-1920s. Holloway died in 1935.