Otto Leland Bohanan (c. 1895 – 6 December 1932) was an African‑American poet, composer, and music educator. He is noted for his contributions to early 20th‑century Black literature and for composing the first hymn of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.
Early life and education
Bohanan was born in Washington, D.C., around 1895, the son of Addison and Julia A. Beverly Bohanan. He attended the public schools of the capital, graduating from M Street High School (later Dunbar High School) in 1910. He enrolled for one year at the Catholic University of America before transferring to Howard University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1914. While at Howard, he joined the fraternity Omega Psi Phi.
In 1928 Bohanan completed a Master of Arts degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he became a member of the honor society Kappa Delta Pi.
Literary career
Bohanan’s poetry appeared regularly in The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, between 1914 and 1919. His poem “On Rankin Chapel” was published in the 1915 Howard University yearbook NIKH. Two of his poems were anthologized in James Weldon Johnson’s influential volume The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922). Subsequent anthologies that featured his work include Readings from Negro Authors (1931), Robert Kerlin’s Negro Poets and Their Poems (1935), and the Works Progress Administration’s An Anthology of Negro Poetry (1937).
Musical career
Parallel to his literary activity, Bohanan pursued a career in music. He opened a music studio in New York City circa 1920 and later taught music at DeWitt Clinton High School. In 1917 he composed “Omega Men Draw Nigh,” the first fraternity hymn for Omega Psi Phi. He performed as a singer in New York, including a role in the first broadcast performance of Harry Lawrence Freeman’s opera Voodoo (1928). Ten of his original musical manuscripts are held in the University of Pennsylvania’s collection.
Personal life and death
In 1931, Bohanan married Florence Dulcia Coffer, a public‑school teacher, in Greenwich, Connecticut. He died on 6 December 1932 in New York City at the age of 36–37 and was interred in Washington, D.C.
Legacy
Bohanan’s work occupies a modest but respected place in early African‑American literary and musical history. His poems, especially those included in Johnson’s 1922 anthology, continue to be cited in scholarly studies of Black poetry of the early twentieth century. His contributions to fraternity music and his role as an educator reflect the broader cultural engagement of African‑American artists during the Harlem Renaissance era.
