Margaret Walker Alexander, best known for her neo-slave narrative Jubilee and the poem “For My People,” was born Maragret Abigail Walker on July 7, 1915, in Birmingham, Alabama. Encouraged by her parents, Reverend Sigismund and Marion Dozier Walker, Margaret read much poetry and philosophy as a young child. She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree at Northwestern University in 1935, and in 1936 began working with the Federal Writer’s Project along with writers such as Frank Yerby and Gwendolyn Brooks.

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