OBSCURE POET

 

MARGARET WALKER

Born in Birmingham, Alabama on July 7, 1915

Poet, Novelist

For My People  1st collection of poetry

First black woman to receive Yale Series of Younger Poets Award (1942)

Jubilee- her first novel (1966)

First work by black writer speaking out for liberation of the black woman.

Was friends with Novelist Richard Wright and poet Langston Hughes

Taught at Jackson State College (now Jackson State University)

Prophets For a New Day- poetry collection she calls her civil rights poems.

Died in 1998

Inducted into the African American Literary Hall of Fame