Margaret Walker (July 7, 1915 – November 30, 1998) was an American poet and writer who was part of the African American literary movement known as the Chicago black Renaissance.
Walker was born in Birmingham, Alabama.
Her father was a teacher. Her parents shared their love of philosophy and poetry with their daughter. Her grandmother’s bedtime stories told of the struggles African Americans endured during slavery.
Traditionally books ignored African Americans or portrayed them in derogatory or stereotypical terms. Walker decided she wanted to grow up and become a writer, so she could tell positive stories about people of color that would be a source of pride and encouragement instead of shame and embarrassment.
After her family moved to New Orleans, Walker was able to share one of her poems with Langston Hughes during one of his speaking engagements. Hughes immediately recognized the fifteen-year old’s talent.
During her college years, Walker worked to improve her poetry skills after transferring to Northwestern University in Chicago. After graduation, she worked with the Federal Writer’s Project alongside Gwendolyn Brooks and Frank Yerby under President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression. Walker joined the South Side Writers Group that included Richard Wright, Theodore Ward, Arna Bontemps, Frank Marshall Davis, and Fenton Johnson.
In 1942, she earned her master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Iowa. That same year, she married Firnist Alexander and moved to Mississippi in 1943 to be with him. They had four children and lived in the Medgar Evers Historic District in Jackson. Walker eventually earned her Ph.D. in 1965 from the University of Iowa.
Her poetry collection, For My People, published in 1942 won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition making her the first black woman to receive a national writing prize.
She taught literature at what is now Jackson State University, a historically black college from 1949-1979.
Walker’s second book, Jubilee (1966) is the story of a slave family before and after the American Civil War. It’s based on her grandmother’s life and the stories she shared.
In 1968, she founded the Institute for the Study of History, Life, and Culture of Black People. It’s now known as the Margret Walker Center. Walker’s personal papers are stored there.
Walker released three poetry albums on Folkways Records in 1975. In 1989, she received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of Black Women. She died of breast cancer in 1998 at the age of 83.
In 2014, Walker was inducted into The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. She was also honored with a historical marker through the Mississippi Writer’s Trail joining writing greats such as William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Richard Wright, and Ida B. Wells.
Works by Margaret Walker:
For My People (1942)
Jubilee (1966)
Prophets for a New Day (1970)
October Journey (1973)
A Poetic Equation: Conversations Between Nikki Giovanni and Margaret Walker (1974)
Richard Wright, Daemonic Genius: A Portrait of the Man, A Critical Look at His Work (1988)
This is My Century: New and Collected Poems (1989)
Photo Credit: By Schlesinger Library, RIAS, Harvard University - https://www.flickr.com/photos/schlesinger_library/13270304753/, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52962658