Eloise Greenfield

She was the second oldest of five children of Weston W. Little and his wife Lessie Blanche (née Jones) Little (1906–1986).

A shy and studious child, she loved music and took piano lessons.

Greenfield experienced racism first-hand in the segregated southern U.S., especially when she visited her grandparents in North Carolina and Virginia.

Eloise Greenfield (May 17, 1929 – August 5, 2021) was an American children's book and biography author and poet famous for her descriptive, rhythmic style and positive portrayal of the African-American experience.

She graduated from Cardozo Senior High School in 1946 and attended Miner Teachers College (now known as University of the District of Columbia) until 1949.

In her third year, however, she realized that she was too shy to be a teacher and dropped out.

Greenfield began work in the civil service at the U.S. Patent Office, where she soon became bored and also experienced racial discrimination.

After college, Greenfield began writing poetry and songs in the 1950s while working in a civil service job.

She began writing poetry and song lyrics in the 1950s while working at the Patent Office, finally succeeding in getting her first poem, "To a Violin", published in the Hartford Times in 1962 after many years of writing and submitting poetry and stories.

She resigned from the Patent Office in 1960 to spend more time with her children; she took temporary jobs and continued to write, publishing some of her work in magazines during the 1960s.

In 1962, after years of submitting her work, her first poem was finally accepted for publication.

After joining the District of Columbia Black Writers Workshop in 1971, Greenfield began to write books for children.

In 1971, Greenfield began work for the District of Columbia Black Writers' Workshop, as co-director of adult fiction and then, in 1973, as director of children's literature.

That group's goal was to encourage the writing and publishing of African-American literature.

In 1972, she published the first of her 48 children's books, including picture books, novels, poetry and biographies.

She focused her work on realistic but positive portrayals of African-American communities, families and friendships.

She also worked to encourage the writing and publishing of African-American literature and taught creative writing.

Greenfield was born Eloise Little in Parmele, North Carolina, and grew up in Washington, D.C., during the Great Depression in the Langston Terrace housing project, which provided a warm childhood experience for her.

She published her first children’s book, Bubbles, in 1972, and after Sharon Bell Mathis encouraged her to write a picture book biography, she published Rosa Parks in 1973.

Speaking engagements in connection with that topic helped her to overcome her fear of public speaking.

Greenfield went on to publish 48 children's books, including picture books, novels, poetry and biographies.

She said that she sought to "choose and order words that children will celebrate".

Dismayed by the depiction of blacks and black communities in popular media, Greenfield focused her work on realistic but positive portrayals of African-American communities, families and friendships.

Her first book, Bubbles (1972), "sets the tone for much of Greenfield's later work: Realistic portrayals of loving African American parents working hard to provide for their families, and the children who face life's challenges with a positive outlook."

These relationships are emphasized in Sister (1974), where a young girl copes with the death of a parent with the help of other family members; Me and Nessie (1975), about best friends; My Daddy and I (1991); and Big Friend, Little Friend (1991), about mentoring.

In She Come Bringing Me that Little Baby Girl (1974), a boy deals with feelings of envy and learns to share his parents' love when his baby sister arrives.

Among Greenfield's accolades is the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1976.

One of her best-known books, Honey, I Love, first published in 1978, is a collection of poems for people of all ages concerning the daily lives and loving relationships of children and families.

Jonda McNair calls the collection a classic with themes relevant to diverse readers.

Her semi-autobiographical book Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir (1979), co-written with her mother, describes her happy childhood in a neighborhood with strong positive relationships.

In the introduction to that book, she explained her interest in biography:

"People are a part of their time. They are affected, during the time that they live, by the things that happen in their world. Big things and small things. A war, an invention such as radio or television, a birthday party, a kiss. All of these help to shape the present and the future. If we could know more about our ancestors, about the experiences they had when they were children, and after they had grown up, too, we would know much more about what has shaped us and our world."

The poignant Alesia (1981) concerns the bravery of a girl handicapped by a childhood accident.

She was writer-in-residence at the District of Columbia Commission on the Arts and Humanities in 1985–86 and taught creative writing in schools under grants from the Commission.

She also lectured and gave free workshops on writing of African-American children's literature.

She was a member of the National Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent and a member of the African-American Writers Guild.

Night on Neighborhood Street (1991) is a collection of poems depicting everyday life in an urban community.

After 1991, most of Greenfield's books were illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist.

In later years, Greenfield experienced sight and hearing loss, but she continued speaking and publishing books with the help of her daughter.

The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation wrote that Greenfield "broadened the path toward a more diverse American literature for children."