Washington Addition in Jackson in Hinds County, Mississippi — The American South (East South Central)
Margaret Walker
— Mississippi Writers Trail —
Photographed By Mark Hilton, July 31, 2021
1. Margaret Walker Marker
Inscription.
Margaret Walker. . Born July 7, 1915, in Birmingham, Alabama, Margaret Abigail Walker grew up in a sophisticated Black family in New Orleans. After attending Northwestern University, she joined the WPA in Depression- era Chicago, where she met some of the day's great writers. She received an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. Her seminal volume of poetry, For My People, won the 1942 Yale Prize. In 1949 Walker began a thirty-year teaching career at Jackson State College. After decades of research, she published her 1966 novel Jubilee that ushered in a genre of modern slave narratives. At the forefront of the Black Studies and Black Arts Movements, in 1968 she founded an institute at JSU to preserve and interpret Black history and culture, which was later named in her honor. Describing her life, Walker celebrated “being female, black, and free." She died in 1998.
Born July 7, 1915, in Birmingham, Alabama, Margaret Abigail Walker
grew up in a sophisticated Black family in New Orleans. After
attending Northwestern University, she joined the WPA in Depression-
era Chicago, where she met some of the day's great writers. She
received an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. Her seminal
volume of poetry, For My People, won the 1942 Yale Prize. In 1949
Walker began a thirty-year teaching career at Jackson State College.
After decades of research, she published her 1966 novel Jubilee that
ushered in a genre of modern slave narratives. At the forefront of
the Black Studies and Black Arts Movements, in 1968 she founded an
institute at JSU to preserve and interpret Black history and culture,
which was later named in her honor. Describing her life, Walker
celebrated “being female, black, and free." She died in 1998.
is in Jackson, Mississippi, in Hinds County. It is in Washington Addition. Marker can be reached from Ayer Hall (East Side). Located on the Jackson State University campus at Ayer Hall's Margaret Walker Center. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Jackson MS 39203, United States of America. Touch for directions.
More about this marker. Directions: Take Dr. Robert Smith Parkway go south on Dalton Street. Visitor Parking is available behind the Jackson State University Student Center. From Dalton Street, turn right into the lot between the Campus Police Station and the Student Center. The parking lot will be in front of you. Stop at the guard station for more information.
2. Marker in front of the Margaret Walker Center at Ayer Hall.
Photographed By Mark Hilton, July 31, 2021
3. View towards marker and the H.T. Sampson Library.
Credits. This page was last revised on February 16, 2023. It was originally submitted on July 31, 2021, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama. This page has been viewed 242 times since then and 31 times this year. Photos:1, 2, 3. submitted on July 31, 2021, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.
