Ralph Waldo Ellison (March 1, 1913–April 16, 1994) was an African-American writer. He was born in Oklahoma and studied at the Tuskegee Institute.
Ellison is most famous for writing Invisible Man, a novel about racism and African American identity. The narrator of the book calls himself an invisible man because people refuse to see him for who he really is. Invisible Man won a National Book Award and is still read today by many students and scholars.
Besides Invisible Man, Ellison wrote many essays. He was very interested in music, especially jazz. He started a second novel, called Juneteenth, but never finished it.