Age, Biography and Wiki

Margaret Walker was born on 7 July, 1915 in Birmingham, Alabama, U.S., is an American poet and writer. Discover Margaret Walker's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is she in this year and how she spends money? Also learn how she earned most of networth at the age of 83 years old?

Popular As N/A
Occupation Poet, novelist
Age 83 years old
Zodiac Sign Cancer
Born 7 July 1915
Birthday 7 July
Birthplace Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
Date of death 30 November, 1998
Died Place Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Nationality United States

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 7 July. She is a member of famous poet with the age 83 years old group.

Margaret Walker Height, Weight & Measurements

At 83 years old, Margaret Walker height not available right now. We will update Margaret Walker's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
Height Not Available
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Who Is Margaret Walker's Husband?

Her husband is Firnist Alexander

Family
Parents Not Available
Husband Firnist Alexander
Sibling Not Available
Children 4

Margaret Walker Net Worth

Her net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Margaret Walker worth at the age of 83 years old? Margaret Walker’s income source is mostly from being a successful poet. She is from United States. We have estimated Margaret Walker's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income poet

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Timeline

1915

Margaret Walker (Margaret Abigail Walker Alexander by marriage; July 7, 1915 – November 30, 1998) was an American poet and writer.

She was part of the African-American literary movement in Chicago, known as the Chicago Black Renaissance.

1935

In 1935, Walker received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University.

1936

In 1936 she began work with the Federal Writers' Project under the Works Progress Administration of the President Franklin D. Roosevelt administration during the Great Depression.

She worked alongside other young writers like Gwendolyn Brooks and Frank Yerby.

Her supervisor, Jacob Scher, was so impressed with her talent that he allowed her to work from home on her own material, a privilege accorded no other member of the Illinois staff.

She was a member of the South Side Writers Group, which included authors such as Richard Wright, Arna Bontemps, Fenton Johnson, Theodore Ward, and Frank Marshall Davis.

1942

Her notable works include For My People (1942) which won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition, and the novel Jubilee (1966), set in the South during the American Civil War.

Walker was born in Birmingham, Alabama, to Sigismund C. Walker, a minister, and Marion (née Dozier) Walker, who helped their daughter by teaching her philosophy and poetry as a child.

She was captivated by the bedtime stories her grandmother told her, which were often tales of slavery.

She knew at a young age that she wanted to become a writer so that she could write books about people of colour that would not make her feel ashamed.

Her family moved to New Orleans when Walker was a young girl.

At the age of 15, she showed a few of her poems to Langston Hughes, on a speaking tour at the moment, who recognised her talent.

She attended school there, including several years of college, before she moved north to Chicago.

With the help of her English professor, E. B. Hungerford, who was also her mentor, Walker learned all the different forms of English poetry, the English metrical system, scansion of a poem, and memorised versification patterns.

In 1942, she received her master's degree in creative writing from the University of Iowa.

In 1942, Walker's poetry collection For My People won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition under the judgeship of editor Stephen Vincent Benét, making her the first black woman to receive a national writing prize.

Her For My People was considered the "most important collection of poetry written by a participant in the Chicago Black Renaissance before Gwendolyn Brooks's A Street in Bronzeville."

Richard Barksdale says: "The [title] poem was written when "world-wide pain, sorrow, and affliction were tangibly evident, and few could isolate the black man's dilemma from humanity's dilemma during the depression years or during the war years." He said that the power of resilience presented in the poem is a hope Walker holds out not only to black people but to all people, to "all the Adams and Eves."

1943

Walker married Firnist Alexander in 1943 and moved to Mississippi to be with him.

They had four children together and lived in the Medgar Evers Historic District (formerly Elraine Subdivision) in the capital of Jackson.

1949

Walker became a literature professor at what is today Jackson State University, an historically black college, where she taught from 1949 to 1979.

1965

In 1965, she returned to that school to earn her Ph.D.

1966

Walker's second published book (and only novel), Jubilee (1966), is the story of a slave family during and after the Civil War, and is based on her great-grandmother's life.

It took her thirty years to write.

Roger Whitlow says: "It serves especially well as a response to white 'nostalgia' fiction about the antebellum and Reconstruction South."

This book is considered important in African-American literature.

1968

In 1968, Walker founded the Institute for the Study of History, Life, and Culture of Black People (now the Margaret Walker Center) and her personal papers are now stored there.

1970

Walker was the first of a generation of women who started publishing more novels in the 1970s.

1975

In 1975, Walker released three albums of poetry on Folkways Records – Margaret Walker Alexander Reads Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar and James Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes; Margaret Walker Reads Margaret Walker and Langston Hughes; and The Poetry of Margaret Walker.

1976

In 1976, she went on to serve as the institute's director.

1978

In 1978, Margaret Walker sued Alex Haley, claiming that his 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family had violated Jubilee ' s copyright by borrowing from her novel.

The case was dismissed.

1989

Walker received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1989.

1991

In 1991, Walker was sued by Ellen Wright, the widow of Richard Wright, on the grounds that Walker's use of unpublished letters and an unpublished journal in a just-published biography of Wright violated the widow's copyright.

Wright v. Warner Books was dismissed by the district court, and this judgment was supported by the appeals court.

1998

Walker died of breast cancer in Chicago, Illinois, in 1998, aged 83.

2014

Walker was inducted into The Chicago Literary Hall of Fame in 2014.

Walker was honoured with a historical marker through the Mississippi Writers Trail.

Margaret Walker's evocative poetry has inspired new musical compositions by 20th and 21st-century composers.