15 Facts About Paula Giddings

Paula Jane Giddings was born on 1947 and is an American writer, historian, and civil rights activist.

Paula Jane Giddings was born on November 16,1947, in Yonkers, New York, to Virginia Iola Stokes and Curtis Gulliver Giddings.

Paula Giddings grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood in Yonkers, where she regularly and systematically experienced isolation and racism from her white neighbors.

In 1965, Paula Giddings graduated from Gorton High School in Yonkers.

Paula Giddings was inspired by her professors, including Arthur P Davis and Jeane Marie Miller.

From 1969 to 1972, Paula Giddings worked for Random House, first as an editorial assistant and later as a copy editor.

Paula Giddings worked with Charles Harris, who was pushing for more Black editors to join the company, and at this time the publisher was producing many works by Black authors, including Angela Davis and the Black Panthers.

In 1972, Harris started Howard University Press, and Paula Giddings joined as well, becoming an associate book editor.

Paula Giddings opened the Paris branch of the newspaper, reporting on local issues as well as traveling throughout Africa, interviewing people like Winnie Mandela and President Idi Amin.

In 1988, Paula Giddings joined the faculty of Douglass College at Rutgers University.

Paula Giddings became a fellow of the Barnard Center for Research on Women.

In 2001, Giddings joined Smith College as the Elizabeth A Woodson 1922 Professor of Africana Studies.

Paula Giddings served as the editor of feminist journal Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism.

Paula Giddings then became Smith College department chair and honors thesis advisor for the department of Africana studies, where she remained until her retirement in 2017.

In 2017, Paula Giddings was a National Book Award Judge for nonfiction works.