Margaret Abigail Walker Alexander (1915-1998), who wrote as Margaret Walker, was born into a middle class home of educators in Birmingham, Alabama. Her father, Sigismund C. Walker, also served as a Methodist minister and her mother, Marion Dozier Walker, was a music teacher. This familial background was instrumental in helping Walker develop a strong moral sense and a heart for the educational uplift of her people.
Walker’s life significantly changed in the 1930s when she met Langston Hughes, whom she would later declare was her idol and who became a close friend. With her parents, she had moved to Louisiana years earlier and was attending New Orleans University (now Dillard University) when the poet visited the campus. Walker showed him some of her poetry and, seeing promise in her
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Citation: Smith-Spears, RaShell. "Margaret Walker". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 January 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4581, accessed 23 November 2024.]
