Jackson and Mississippi’s great author Margaret Walker would have been 100 years old next year, and Jackson State University and the Jackson Hinds Library System are celebrating.
Called This is My Century: The Life and Legacy of Margaret Walker, the Centennial will include a yearlong series of events starting in January at JSU and at every library branch, said the library system’s executive director Patricia Furr.
The Centennial will include a major gala celebration on July 10, 2015, for what would have been Walker’s 100th birthday.
Events will be held throughout the state, said Dr. Robert Luckett, director of JSU’s Margaret Walker Center for the Study of the African-American Experience, headquarters for the observances.
Luckett and Furr announced the plans at a Dec. 5 reception at the Walker Center that featured a book signing by Carolyn Brown, who has published Song of My Life (University Press of Mississippi), the first biography of Margaret Walker.
Walker was born in 1915 in Birmingham, Ala., to parents who prized education, Luckett said. Walker earned both her master’s and doctorate from the University of Iowa. She went on to become a nationally known writer and educator. Her most well known works include the poem For My People and the novel Jubilee, set in the South during the Civil War.
Brown, who shared how she came to write the biography at the reception,
is also the author of A Daring Life: A Biography of Eudora Welty (University Press of Mississippi).
Most JSU professors and community members know Walker by her married name of Margaret Walker Alexander, stemming from when she was a JSU professor, but the name she is known elsewhere in the United States and the world is Margaret Walker, Luckett noted.
The Centennial starts at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 16 with the Martin Luther King, Jr., Birthday Convocation with a keynote speech by Paula Giddings, at JSU’s Rose E. McCoy Auditorium.
Giddings, a professor of African-American studies at Smith College, is the author of three books on the social and political history of African-American women: When and Where I Enter: The Impact on Black Women on Race and Sex in America; In Search of Sisterhood: Delta Sigma Theta and the Challenge of the Black Sorority Movement; and, most recently, the biography of anti-lynching activist Ida B. Wells, Ida: A Sword among Lions.
She is a former book editor and journalist who has written extensively on international and national issues and has been published by the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Jeune Afrique (Paris), and other publications.
Her talk will be followed at 11:45 a.m. with a For My People Awards Luncheon at the JSU Student Center Ballroom.
The celebration continues at 6 p.m. Jan. 22 at Jackson’s Eudora Welty Library with a talk on The Literary and Historical Importance of Margaret Walker’s Life by Luckett.
He will provide details of Walker’s interactions with the leading lights of literature of her time, including Richard Wright, W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison, as well as her proper role as part of the Chicago literary movement.
As the commemoration continues, it will offer a variety of dimensions from which to judge Walker’s impact and legacy:
— Literary comparisons between Eudora Welty and Margaret Walker will be discussed.
— Storytelling workshops will be held for children and adults using works by Margaret Walker.
— Probing questions will be asked, with such lecture titles as: In the light of the Civil Rights’ Movement and the Changes in the Last 50 Years for African-Americans, Is Jubilee dated?
— Answers will be given, such as: How Walker Influenced a Whole Generation of African-American Women, Including Fannie Lou Hamer.
— Gender roles will be explored, such as: What Modern Women Can Learn from the Female Characters in Jubilee.
— Scholarship will be questioned, such as: Inquiring Minds Want to Know: How Much of Jubilee was Actually True?
The Centennial will figure largely in the Mississippi Humanities Council’s Symposium on the 150th Anniversary of Emancipation in April.
A gala celebration will be held at the JSU Student Center Ballrooms where For My People: A New Musical Work will be performed.
There even will be a midsummer Jubilee Picnic at the historic Ayer Hall on the JSU campus.
While all these events are going on, there will also be other important activities, such as the Dr. Doris Derby Photography Exhibit illuminating the Black Arts Movement with Nikki Giovanni as keynote.
Derby documented the civil rights movement as an activist. Now a retired Georgia State University anthropology professor, her photography shows many aspects of the movement as it was unfolding and features major women figures such as Myrlie Evers, Fannie Lou Hamer and Margaret Walker.
The Toni Morrison Society’s Bench by the Road Project also comes to Mississippi in honor of Walker. The name “Bench by the Road” is taken from Morrison’s remarks in a 1989 interview with World magazine where she spoke of the absences of historical markers that help remember the lives of Africans who were enslaved.
Not all the celebrations are at the Jackson Hinds libraries or JSU campus. Her life and work will figure prominently at the Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration in February and the Oxford Conference for the Book in April.
The Centennial will also by celebrated at Jackson’s Aug. 22, Mississippi Book Festival.
For more information, visit the Center’s website at www.jsums.edu/margaretwalkercenter or contact the Center’s staff at 601-979-2055 or mwa@jsums.edu.
Margaret Walker Centennial Events:
Friday, Jan. 16, 10 a.m.
Martin Luther King, Jr., Birthday Convocation
Margaret Walker Centennial
Paula Giddings, Keynote
Rose E. McCoy Auditorium
Friday, Jan. 16, 11:45 a.m.
For My People Awards Luncheon
JSU Student Center Ballroom
Thursday, Jan. 22, 6 pm
Jackson/Hinds Library System
The Literary and Historical Importance of Margaret Walker’s Life
Robert Luckett
Eudora Welty Library
Monday, Feb. 9, 4 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Writing workshop for children including a dramatic reading/performance of Margaret Walker’s works
Katrina Byrd
Annie T. Jeffers Library — Bolton, Miss.
Tuesday, Feb. 10, 4 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Writing workshop for children including a dramatic reading/performance of Margaret Walker’s works
Katrina Byrd
Raymond Library — Raymond, Miss.
February 26-28
Natchez Literary and Cinema Celebration
Margaret Walker Centennial
Natchez, Mississippi
Thursday, Feb. 26, 3 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
On the Shoulders of Giants: How Walker Influenced a Whole Generation of African-American Women, Including Fannie Lou Hamer
Jean Chamberlain
Fannie Lou Hamer Library
Thursday, March 5, 6 p.m.
Eudora Welty and Margaret Walker
Carolyn Brown and Robert Luckett
Eudora Welty House
Tuesday, March 10, 4:15 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Storytelling workshop for teens using poems and stories by Margaret Walker
Terrence Roberts
Eudora Welty Library
Thursday, March 19, 4 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Such a Bold Leader: The Unusual Young Adult Life of Margaret Walker
Carolyn Brown
Charles W. Tisdale Library
March 25-27
Oxford Conference for the Book
Margaret Walker Centennial
Oxford, Mississippi
Thursday, March 26, 4 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
FOR MY PEOPLE: What the Internationally Famous Poem Has to Say to Young People Today
C. Liegh McInnis
Medgar Evers Library
Friday and Saturday, April 10-11
Creative Arts Festival
JSU Student Center
Nikky Finney, Keynote
Toni Morrison Bench by the Road
Thursday, April 16, 6 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
RICHARD WRIGHT, DAEMONIC GENIUS: Margaret Walker’s Experiment with Autobiographical Biography
Dr. Jerry Ward
Richard Wright Library
Friday, April 17
Mississippi Jubilee: From Slavery to Freedom
Symposium on the 150th Anniversary of Emancipation
Mississippi Humanities Council
Margaret Walker’s Jubilee Panel Discussion
Tuesday, April 21, 4:15 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Storytelling workshop for children using poems and stories by Margaret Walker
Terrence Roberts
Richard Wright Library
April 30-Summer
Black Arts Movement
Dr. Doris Derby Photography Exhibit
Nikki Giovanni, Keynote
Johnson Hall Art Gallery
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Thursday, May 7, 4 p.m.
Who in the World Was Margaret Walker: Bringing the Legend Alive for 21st Century Youth
Carolyn Brown
Raymond Library—Raymond, Mississippi
Monday, June 1, 10 a.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Writing workshop for children including a dramatic reading/performance of Margaret Walker’s works
Katrina Byrd
Charles Tisdale Library
Saturday, June 6, 1 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Storytelling workshop for children using poems and stories by Margaret Walker
Terrence Roberts
Quisenberry Library — Clinton, Miss.
Thursday, June 18, 6 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Inquiring Minds Want to Know: How Much of JUBILEE was Actually True?
Jean Chamberlain
Quisenberry Library—Clinton, Miss.
Tuesday, July 7, 11:30 a.m.
Margaret Walker Centennial
Jubilee Picnic
Ayer Hall
Jackson State University
Thursday, July 9, 10 a.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Storytelling workshop for children & adults using works by Margaret Walker
Janice Neal-Vincent
Margaret Walker Alexander Library
Thursday, July 9, 6 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Up Close and Personal: What I Learned
Writing the Biography of Margaret Walker
Maryemma Graham
Willie Morris Library
Friday, July 10, 5 p.m.
Margaret Walker Centennial
Gala Celebration
For My People: A New Musical Work
JSU Student Center Ballrooms
Tuesday, July 14, 10 a.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Storytelling workshop for children & adults using works by Margaret Walker
Janice Neal-Vincent
Willie Morris Library
Saturday, Aug. 22
Mississippi Book Festival
Margaret Walker Centennial
Thursday, Aug. 27, 6 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
My Lord! What Women! What Modern Women Can Learn from the Female Characters in JUBILEE
RaShell Smith-Spears
Beverly Brown Library — Byram, Miss.
Thursday, Sept. 24, 6 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
In the light of the Civil Rights’ Movement and the Changes in the Last 50 Years for African-Americans, Is JUBILEE dated?
Doris Ginn
Eudora Welty Library
Thursday, Oct. 8, 6 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Discussion of Margaret Walker’s Poem OCTOBER JOURNEY
C. Liegh McInnis
Beverly Brown Library — Byram, Mississippi
Sunday, Nov. 15, 6 p.m.
Jackson/Hinds Library System
Charles Tisdale Library
The Thoughts I Will Keep from the Margaret Walker Centennial Celebration
Robert Luckett