19 Facts About Margaret Walker

Margaret Walker was part of the African-American literary movement in Chicago, known as the Chicago Black Renaissance.

Margaret Walker was captivated by the bedtime stories her grandmother told her, which were often tales of slavery.

Margaret Walker knew at a young age that she wanted to become a writer so that she could write books about people of colour that would not make her feel ashamed.

Margaret Walker's family moved to New Orleans when Walker was a young girl.

Margaret Walker attended school there, including several years of college at what is Dillard University, before she moved north to Chicago.

In 1935, Walker received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University.

Margaret Walker worked alongside other young writers like Gwendolyn Brooks and Frank Yerby.

Margaret Walker was a member of the South Side Writers Group, which included authors such as Richard Wright, Arna Bontemps, Fenton Johnson, Theodore Ward, and Frank Marshall Davis.

Margaret Walker married Firnist Alexander in 1943 and moved to Mississippi to be with him.

Margaret Walker became a literature professor at what is today Jackson State University, an historically black college, where she taught from 1949 to 1979.

In 1968, Walker founded the Institute for the Study of History, Life, and Culture of Black People and her personal papers are now stored there.

Margaret Walker's second published book, Jubilee, is the story of a slave family during and after the Civil War, and is based on her great-grandmother's life.

Margaret Walker was the first of a generation of women who started publishing more novels in the 1970s.

Margaret Walker received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1989.

In 1978, Margaret Walker sued Alex Haley, claiming that his 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family had violated Jubilee's copyright by borrowing from her novel.

In 1991, Margaret Walker was sued by Ellen Wright, the widow of Richard Wright, on the grounds that Margaret Walker's use of unpublished letters and an unpublished journal in a just-published biography of Wright violated the widow's copyright.

Margaret Walker died of breast cancer in Chicago, Illinois, in 1998, aged 83.

Margaret Walker was inducted into The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame in 2014.

Margaret Walker was honoured with a historical marker through the Mississippi Writers Trail.