Age, Biography and Wiki

Louise Meriwether (Louise Jenkins) was born on 8 May, 1923 in Haverstraw, New York, U.S., is an American novelist (1923–2023). Discover Louise Meriwether'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 100 years old?

Popular As Louise Jenkins
Occupation Novelist biographer journalist activist
Age 100 years old
Zodiac Sign Taurus
Born 8 May, 1923
Birthday 8 May
Birthplace Haverstraw, New York, U.S.
Date of death 10 October, 2023
Died Place New York City, New York, U.S.
Nationality United States

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 8 May. She is a member of famous novelist with the age 100 years old group.

Louise Meriwether Height, Weight & Measurements

At 100 years old, Louise Meriwether height not available right now. We will update Louise Meriwether's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
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Dating & Relationship status

She is currently single. She is not dating anyone. We don't have much information about She's past relationship and any previous engaged. According to our Database, She has no children.

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Louise Meriwether Net Worth

Her net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Louise Meriwether worth at the age of 100 years old? Louise Meriwether’s income source is mostly from being a successful novelist. She is from United States. We have estimated Louise Meriwether'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 novelist

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Timeline

1923

Louise Meriwether (May 8, 1923 – October 10, 2023) was an American novelist, essayist, journalist and activist, as well as a writer of biographies of historically important African Americans for children.

1929

After the stock market crash of October 1929, her parents had migrated north in search of work, from South Carolina, where her father was a painter and bricklayer and her mother worked as a domestic.

Meriwether grew up in Harlem during the Great Depression, the only daughter and the third of five children.

Meriwether graduated from Central Commercial High School in Manhattan and then, while working as a secretary, studied at night for a B.A. degree in English from New York University.

1961

She worked as a freelance reporter (1961–64) for the Los Angeles Sentinel and a black story analyst (1965–67) for Universal Studios, the first black woman hired as a story editor in Hollywood.

While still living in Los Angeles, working with the Watts Writers Workshop, Meriwether was approached to be editor-in-chief of a new magazine for Black women called Essence but she declined, saying she preferred to write for them, her article "Black Man, Do You Love Me?"

1965

She went on to earn an M.A. in journalism in 1965 from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she moved with her first husband, Angelo Meriwether, a Los Angeles teacher.

Although this marriage, as well as her second marriage to Earle Howe, ended in divorce she continued to use the name Meriwether.

1967

Meriwether had over the years been involved with various organized black causes, including the founding, with John Henrik Clarke, of the anti-Apartheid group Black Concern (originally the Committee of Concerned Blacks), the Harlem Writers Guild, and (with Vantile Whitfield) the Black Anti-Defamation Association (BADA; also known as Association to End Defamation of Black People) that was formed to prevent Twentieth Century Fox's producer David L. Wolper from making a film of William Styron's controversial 1967 novel The Confessions of Nat Turner, which misinterpreted African-American history.

She has been active in the peace movement for most of her life.

1970

She is best known for her first novel, Daddy Was a Number Runner (1970), which draws on autobiographical elements about growing up in Harlem, New York City, during the Depression and in the era after the Harlem Renaissance.

She was born in Haverstraw, New York, to the married couple Marion Lloyd Jenkins and Julia Jenkins.

appearing as the cover story for the magazine's first issue in May 1970.

In 1970 she published her first and most successful book, Daddy Was a Number Runner (with a foreword by James Baldwin), a novel that uses autobiographical elements about growing up in Harlem during the Depression and in the era after the Harlem Renaissance, is considered a classic.

In the words of Paule Marshall: "The novel's greatest achievement lies in the sense of black life that it conveys: vitality and force behind the despair. It celebrates the positive values behind the black experience: the tenderness and love that often lie underneath the abrasive surfaces of relationships...the humor that has long been an important part of the black survival kit, and the heroism of ordinary folk...a most important novel."

The novel sold more than 400,000 copies.

Becoming part of a group of young New York-based writer friends that included Rosa Guy and Maya Angelou, Meriwether has recalled: "We partied. All over. Wherever we were, we partied. ...Then, of course, we got our work done. We believed in enjoying ourselves and enjoying each other."

Meriwether began writing biographies for children about historically important African Americans — including Robert Smalls, Daniel Hale Williams, and Rosa Parks — and has explained: "After publication of my first novel ... I turned my attention to black history for the kindergarten set, recognizing that the deliberate omission of Blacks from American history has been damaging to the children of both races. It reinforces in one a feeling of inferiority and in the other a myth of superiority."

1975

Her short stories have appeared in The Antioch Review and Negro Digest, as well as in anthologies including Black-Eyed Susans: Classic Stories by and About Black Women (ed. Mary Helen Washington, 1975), Confirmation: An Anthology of African American Women (eds Amina Baraka & Amiri Baraka, 1983), The Other Woman (ed. Toni Cade Bambara, 1984) and Daughters of Africa (ed. Margaret Busby, 1992).

She wrote the Introduction to The Givens Collection edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs.

Meriwether also taught creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College and at the University of Houston.

She was awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mellon Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts and the Rabinowitz Foundation.

1988

Meriwether would later publish the novels Francie's Harlem (1988), Fragments of the Ark (1994), and Shadow Dancing (2000).

1991

Meriwether was an executive board member of the Organization of Women Writers of Africa (OWWA), an NGO co-founded in 1991 by Jayne Cortez and Ama Ata Aidoo "for the purpose of establishing links between professional African women writers".

Louise Meriwether died at a nursing home in the New York borough of Manhattan, on October 10, 2023, at the age of 100.

2002

"I am a writer, and also a dedicated activist and peacenik. In New York City in my twenties I was chapter chairman of my union, marching in May Day Parades and having rotten eggs thrown at my head. In Los Angeles I was arrested in a sit-in against the racist Birch Society and sentenced to five years probation. In Bogalusa, Louisiana, I worked with the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); back in New York I was instrumental in keeping Muhammad Ali, then world's heavyweight champion, from fighting in South Africa and breaking a cultural boycott. In Washington, D.C., I was arrested in 2002 in a protest against the disastrous policies of the World Bank and the IMF. Back in New York I was active in several forums breaking the silence about the rampant rape in the Congo and the multinational corporations and countries involved. Last year I helped set up a forum at Riverside Church on the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons.'"

2011

In her own words, when she was a named as a recipient of the Clara Lemlich Award for Social Activism in 2011:

2020

According to filmmaker Cheryl Hill, who had cared for her in recent years, Meriwether's health declined after she contracted COVID-19 in 2020.