Houston was born in Washington, D.C., to a middle-class family who lived in the Striver section. His father William Le Pré Houston, the son of a former slave, had become an attorney and practiced in the capital for more than four decades. Charles' mother, Mary (née Hamilton) Houston, worked as a seamstress. Houston attended segregated local schools, graduating from the academic (college preparatory) Dunbar High School. He studied at Amherst College beginning in 1911, was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society, and graduated as valedictorian in 1915, the only black student in his class. He returned to D.C. and taught English at Howard University, a historically black college.