Black Women in America – Part 36
It has been one of my goals in writing these stories about incredible black women to demonstrate that they are as capable intellectually, creatively, and competently as any other person, male or female, black or white. Many African American women have persevered against the prejudice against them to achieve great things.
In our previous posting, we saw that black female activists and politicians fought for and obtained more freedoms for African Americans. But there are other ways to lessen the prejudice against black women. One way is to remind us of their remarkable accomplishments.
This week we will honor three women whose works demonstrate the intelligence, multi-talented, and artistic abilities of African American women.
Maya Angelou – First Black Female Director (1928-2014)
Gwendolyn Brooks – First Pulitzer Prize in Poetry (1917-2000)
Toni Morrison – Nobel Prize in Literature (1931-2019)
Maya Angelou (1928-2014)
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
Maya Angelou (born Marguerite Johnson) was a multitalented writer and performer who commanded respect with her dignified six-foot tall stature, poise and grace. Maya was one of the most multi-talented women who ever lived. Before she became famous for her book, published 1969, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya had already had many experiences acting, dancing, writing as a journalist, and activism.
A guiding philosophy for Maya was:
All my work, my life, everything I do is about survival, not just bare, awful, plodding survival, but survival with grace and faith. While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated.
Overcoming defeat started at an early age for Maya. She suffered sexual trauma at the age of seven which left her mute for nearly five years. A friend of the family and teacher, Bertha Flowers, helped her regain her voice and taught her to read and write poetry. Maya went on to be an internationally recognized author of seven memoirs, screenplays, articles, essays, and children’s books.
No matter what Maya set her hand to, she worked until she succeeded. Here are just a few of the experiences in her life:
As one of the many “firsts” in Maya’s life, she became the first black streetcar conductor in San Francisco when she was only fifteen years old. She had to continue to apply for the job many times in the face of harassment. She never gave up and eventually got the job. She stayed at this job until she decided to go back and finish high school.[1]
Soon after graduation, Maya gave birth to her only child, Clyde “Guy” Johnson. She took a job as a cocktail waitress in order to support him. She later said she wasn’t proud of that job, but she was able to earn enough money to support herself and Guy.
As a child Maya had taken dance lessons and later was able to turn her talent into jobs at nightclubs. A job at the Purple Onion in San Francisco led to a minor part in the 1954 musical Porgy and Bess. Later she wrote song lyrics, some for Roberta Flack, and did some play and screenwriting. Maya won three Grammy Awards.
While working as an activist, Maya became a newspaper editor. This was a brief assignment but played a part in her life. During this time, she met Malcolm X, who had left the nation of Islam. She wanted to work with him when they came back to the US, but he was assassinated in 1965. She also befriended Martin Luther King Jr, for whom she served as a Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator during the 1960’s. But he too was assassinated in 1968.
Maya was depressed after losing her friends and poured her feelings into the book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, where she told of her own childhood abuse and neglect, but also of healing and recovery. It was an instant bestseller because many people could sympathize with her. Millions worldwide now appreciate this book.
The other many and varied experiences of her life helped Maya as she became a great storyteller. She had much to draw from and she knew how to make stories interesting and memorable. She said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
In 1993, Maya became the first poet to make a presidential inaugural recitation (since Robert Frost’s recitation at JFK’s inauguration in 1961) when she spoke at Bill Clinton’s inauguration. She recited “On the Pulse of Morning”.
Maya was the first black female director in Hollywood. In 1996 she directed a feature film, Down in the Delta,with actors Alfre Woodard, and Wesley Snipes. Maya was also the first African American woman to write an original script for a screenplay – Georgia, Georgia (1972). Maya collaborated with musical artists and created some Hallmark greeting cards. There seemed to be no end to what Maya could do!!
Much more could be said about Maya’s life – her film and writing career, her activism, and her personal life. I did not touch on her overseas trips, her search for her own roots, or her campaign activism. Maya’s son, Guy Johnson said that she wrote four books in the last ten years of her life. I hope you will look at her writings and the many articles and videos of her life.
She was honored by many during her life including Presidential Barack Obama who gave her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010. In 2013 she received the Literarian Award from the National Book Award Foundation. She earned over fifty honorary doctoral degrees. Maya also became the first black woman to be featured on US quarters which the government began to mint in 2021.
By 2014, Maya was struggling with poor health. On the morning of May 28, her nurse found that she had died. On May 29, the Mount Zion Baptist Church in Winston-Salem where she had been a member for 30 years held a public memorial service for her. A private service was held later at Wait Chapel on the campus of Wake Forest University. A third service was held in San Francisco at Glide Memorial Church where Maya had attended for many years.
The metaphor of the caged bird, a symbol for a chained slave, appeared in her works.
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,
When he beats his bars and would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart’s deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings—
I know why the caged bird sings.
In spite of all of the abuse and racial bigotry, Maya learned that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors allowed her to be free instead of imprisoned. Maya is a shining example of an underprivileged person rising above her circumstances to achieve success.
Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)
What I’m fighting for now in my work … for an expression relevant to all manner of blacks, poems I could take into a tavern, into the street, into the halls of a housing project. Gwendolyn Brooks
Gwendolyn Brooks loved poetry. She loved sharing it with others whether it was a school class of twenty-five students or a two-thousand-person audience.
She was born in Topeka on June 7, 1917, to David Anderson Brooks, the son of a runaway slave, and Keziah Corrine (nee Wims) Brooks. They raised her on the south side of Chicago. This upbringing inspired many of her poems of the lives, struggles, and celebrations of everyday people where she lived.
Gwendolyn showed a talent for poetry at an early age. Her parents encouraged her to submit them to magazines. At the age of thirteen, her first poem, “Eventide” was published in American Childhood magazine. By the time she was seventeen she had published many poems featured in the Chicago Defender, a leading African American newspaper. Several older poets, Langston Hughes and James Weldon Johnson, encouraged her. She graduated from Woodrow Wilson Junior College in 1936.
In 1950, Gwendolyn was the first African American to receive the Pulitzer Prize for poetry for Annie Allen (1949). This was an epic, book length poem. She was a prolific writer, and her poetry includes a wide range of topics including ballads, sonnets, narrative, blues, and free verse. She also wrote poems for and about children in Bronzeville Boys and Girls. She eventually authored more than twenty books of poetry.
During the 1960s and 1970s Gwendolyn published many poems with independent Black presses such as Dudley Randall’s Broadside Press and Haki Madhubuti’s Third World Press. She served as a mentor to countless poets in the Black Arts Movement. She organized poetry workshops and poetry contests for young people. She never tired of bringing poetry to the people as she did readings in libraries, schools, prisons, churches, and other public venues.
Gwendolyn taught at Columbia College Chicago, Northeastern Illinois University, Chicago State University, Elmhurst College, Columbia University, and City College of New York. She earned more than fifty honorary degrees.
Awards and Recognition:
In 1985, age 68, Gwendolyn became the first African American to serve as poetry consultant to the Library of Congress.
From 1968 to her death in 2000, she was poet laureate of the state of Illinois.
In 1976, she became the first African American to join the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
Awards include – American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, the Frost Medal, a National Endowment for the Arts Award, the Shelley Memorial Award, and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets and the Guggenheim Foundation.
Gwendolyn lived in Chicago until her death on December 3, 2000.
Gwendolyn left a legacy of great poetry. One short example will suffice to show why Gwendolyn Brooks is still considered one of the most influential writers even into the twenty-first century. Gwendolyn cared about young people. One example of a famous poem is about rebellion and how much it costs. It’s called “We Real Cool”, published in 1963.
The Pool Players.
Seven at the Golden Shovel.
We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.
The poem, though seemingly simple, is very complex and rich in imagery. It brings up many questions about social conditions. It is so true that a really great poet can say in a few words what a narrative writer takes hundreds of words to say.
Toni Morrison (1931-2019)
If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it. Toni Morrison
Chloe Anthony Wofford was born on February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio to working-class parents. She was a gifted student, using her ability on the debate team, the school yearbook, and as secretary for the head librarian of the Lorain Public Library. When she was twelve years old she converted to Catholicism. She adopted the nickname Toni from her baptismal name Anthony.
After graduating from Howard University in 1953, Toni taught at several colleges. In 1958 she married Harold Morrison. Their first son, Harold Ford, was born in 1961. Slade, with whom Toni would later write books, was born in 1965.
Later she divorced her husband and raised her two boys herself. She joined a writer’s group and worked for 18 years as a co-editor for Random House. Some of the books she worked on were memoirs by Muhammad Ali, Lucille Clifton, and Angela Davis.
When she was 39 years old she wrote her first novel, The Bluest Eye. Three years later she wrote Sula and then in 1977 she wrote Song of Solomon. Both received critical acclaim. Sula had been nominated for the National Book Award. Song of Solomon won the National Book Critics Circle Award. With this tremendous encouragement, Toni decided to leave publishing and become a full-time writer.
It was for her novel, Beloved, that Toni won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. This book was based on a true story of an African American enslaved woman. It was on the bestseller list for 25 weeks and won countless awards. Later it was made into a movie co-produced and starring Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover. The books became a trilogy and before the third one was published In 1993, she won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Toni continued to influence writers through her work. She also co-authored books with her son until he died at age 45. She was a professor in the Creative Writing Program at Princeton University. She earned an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford and was a guest curator at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
In 2000, Toni was named a Living Legend by the Library of Congress. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Timothy Greenfield-Sanders released a documentary of her life in 2019 entitled Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am. Toni passed away from complications of pneumonia only two months later.
Conclusion
Societal attitudes toward African American have changed a lot during the last few generations. I believe that Maya, Gwendolyn, and Toni would probably not have won their awards 100 years ago. We can rejoice with our black sisters and brothers that things are improving. There is still a disproportionate number of white males taking the awards in the media and entertainment realms. My prayer is that people, especially those who name the name of Christ, will do all in their power to end social injustice.
[1] In 2014, Maya Angelou received a lifetime achievement award from the Conference of Minority Transportation Officials as part of a session billed “Women Who Move the Nation”.
