Song Of My Life by Carolyn J. Brown

Margaret Walker wrote poetry and a great novel titled Jubilee. The novel, Jubilee, is based on the life of Margaret Walker's great grandmother. Margaret Walker led a fascinating life as she made her way to Iowa and other places completing her education. She lived in Mississippi. At one point, she lived across the street from Medgar Evers. She was out of town on the night he was gunned down by an assassin's bullet. Carolyn J. Brown writes about Margaret Walker with great admiration. Margaret Walker had a never give up spirit, a fighting spirit. She knew what she wanted and had the bravery to go after what she wanted.  After meeting Langston Hughes for the first time, she asks him to read her poetry. He took her work and read it. When she meets him at another reading affair, she asks him to read her work again. This time he turns her down. I admired her ability to ask such an important man to read her work. She wasn't a shrinking wall flower.

It was very interesting to read about Walker's feelings about Alex Haley. Some time after Roots was published,, Margaret Walker criticized him and sued Alex Haley for taking pieces from her work, Jubilee, and using those pieces in Roots. She didn't whisper about it. She took Alex Haley to court.

Then, there is her fight about where her important manuscripts should go after her death. People automatically concluded she would choose the Library of Congress. Margaret Walker said a resounding no, not there. She felt her manuscripts would go unused in the Library of Congress ending up in a dusty drawer in a dark cellar. In the same place where they placed information about Native Americans. She wanted Black students to be able to use her papers for research. The continued watering of the Black Culture, keeping it alive and growing, were very important to her. Her manuscripts and other papers are now housed in Mississippi easily accessible to students and researchers and those curious about her life.

Margaret Mitchell died because of cancer. Her name will never die. There is all her poetry, letters and the book, Jubilee. I am grateful for the photographs placed in the book by Carolyn J. Brown. I especially liked the photo of Margaret Walker's desk, her typewriter and a favorite hat she wore. All that I know about Margaret Walker came from Song Of My Life. Thank you for writing it and not omitting information about segregation and other hard times faced by American Black people who are our literary stars today.http://www.upress.state.ms.us/books/1712 My thanks to NetGalley for a courtesy copy.