The Margaret Walker Center celebrated the 101st birthday of its namesake Thursday afternoon during a “Jubilee Picnic” that reflected on the life and times of the legendary poet and writer who had a long, successful career at Jackson State University.
Reflecting on the center’s beginning in 1968 as the Institute for the Study, History, Life and Culture of Black People, JSU director Dr. Robert Luckett said, “We’re going to celebrate (Margaret Walker Alexander’s) life every year. The Jubilee Picnic provides an opportunity to do that.”
The event included fellowship and music and was attended by dozens of people who knew the poet as either former students or admirers of her literary works.
Although today she would be more than a century old, Walker Alexander spoke on June 15, 1940, of her then-upcoming 25th birthday. She described what she saw as her waning youth:
“These last five years have seemed slow in coming, but now that they are gone they seem to have gone quickly. I realize my first wild days of youth are over. I have had my fling. I am ready to settle down. I want now to secure myself in every respect. My ambition has at last sobered down to a basis of hard work and concentration, and I am seriously willing now to let other things go and put it first.”
Meanwhile, Luckett said of Walker, “She continues to touch people, and this will also be the 50th anniversary of her great novel ‘Jubilee.’ ”
He credits the iconic figure for making the center an exciting place and for impacting humankind.
“We’re proud to be her direct descendants,” Luckett said.