James Baldwin--from wiki--

Baldwin wrote comparatively little about events at school.[29] At five years old, Baldwin began school at Public School 24 (P.S. 24) on 128th Street in Harlem.[29] The principal of the school was Gertrude E. Ayer, the first Black principal in the city, who recognized Baldwin's precocity and encouraged him in his research and writing pursuits,[30] as did some of his teachers, who recognized he had a brilliant mind.[31] Ayer stated that James Baldwin got his writing talent from his mother, whose notes to school were greatly admired by the teachers, and that her son also learned to write like an angel, albeit an avenging one.[3