The Margaret Walker Center and the Jackson Hinds Library System will announce year-long plans to celebrate the 2015 Margaret Walker Centennial at a press conference and reception at 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 5, in Ayer Hall on the Jackson State University campus.
According to Dr. Robert Luckett, director of JSU’s Margaret Walker Center for the Study of the African-American Experience, the Centennial events will include a major gala celebration on July 10, 2015, for what would have been Margaret Walker Alexander’s 100th birthday; an exhibition on her life and times; and programming around the state of Mississippi as well as at every branch of the Jackson Hinds Library System.
The Dec. 5 reception will feature a book signing by Carolyn Brown, who has published Song of My Life (University Press of Mississippi), the first biography of Margaret Walker.
Song of My Life intends to reintroduce Margaret Walker to readers by telling her life story—a story that many can relate to as she overcame familiar obstacles related to race, gender and poverty. The book includes many photographs and images of primary documents from the life of Margaret Walker, Luckett said.
Walker was born in 1915 in Birmingham, Ala., to parents who prized education above all else. Obtaining that education was not easy for either her parents or herself, but Walker went on to earn both her master’s and doctorate from the University of Iowa. Walker’s journey to become a nationally known writer and educator is an incredible story of hard work and perseverance. Her years as a public figure connected her to Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Alex Haley, and a host of other important literary and historical figures.
Carolyn J. Brown is a writer, editor, and independent scholar. She is the author of A Daring Life: A Biography of Eudora Welty (University Press of Mississippi) and has taught at Elon University, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and Millsaps College.
This event is free and open to the public.
For more information, see www.jsums.edu/margaretwalkercenter or contact the Center at 601-979-2055 or mwa@jsums.edu.