Aaron Douglas was an artist and illustrator associated with the Harlem Renaissance of the first half of the 20th century, born in 1899 in Topeka, Kansas. He worked at Skinner's Nursery in Topeka and then at the local Union Pacific Railroad material yard. After graduating from Topeka High School in 1917, Douglas graduated from the University of Nebraska with a bachelor's in fine arts in 1922 and then received a bachelor's degree from the University of Kansas the following year.

Douglas taught at Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri for two years before moving to Harlem, New York in 1925. Studying with German illustrator Winold Reiss, Douglas produced illustrations for the NAACP's The Crisis and Opportunity. He also began producing illustrations for Harper's and Vanity Fair, as well as creating the illustrations for Langston Hughes' Fine Clothes to the Jew (1927) and several other books.

Douglas created murals in New York City, Nashville, Chicago, and Greensboro, North Carolina. In 1934 he completed a series entitled Aspects of Negro Life for the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library. He served as the first president of the Harlem Artists Guild.

Douglas studied in Paris for a year in 1931. In the late 1930s, Charles S. Johnson invited Douglas to develop Fisk University's art department. Douglas therefore joined Fisk's faculty while still working on a master's degree from Columbia University, completing the degree in 1944.

Douglas married Alta Mae Sawyer in 1926. He retired from Fisk University in 1966 and died in Nashville, TN in 1979.