In selecting Margaret Walker as the recipient of the Yale Series of Younger Poets in 1942—making her the first African American to receive this national literary award—Stephen Vincent Benét proclaimed hers a vibrant new voice, finding in her collection For My People “a controlled intensity of emotion and a language that, at times, even when it is most modern, has something of a surge of biblical poetry.” Today, more than seventy years later, Walker’s voice still resonates with particular power. Addressing the literature and culture of black America, This Is My Century, first published in 1989, marked a significant contribution to American poetry, bringing together Walker’s selection of one hundred of her own poems. On the eve of the centennial of Walker’s birth, the University of Georgia Press is proud to reissue this classic of American letters. In addition to her award-winning debut collection, the volume includes Prophets for a New Day (1970), a celebration of the civil rights movement; October Journey (1973), a collection of autobiographical and dedicatory poems; and thirty-seven previously uncollected poems.

"Half a century ago a young woman published a poem that was destined to reverberate through American life." "Here that poem is reprinted with thirty-eight stunning photographs that celebrate it." ""For My People" is a resounding catalog of black history, a clarion that refutes the affliction of humiliation, an indelible record of noble accomplishments. Since 1942 this enduring paean to black America has remained an everlasting appeal against racial oppression." ""I wrote most of that poem," Margaret Walker says, "in fifteen minutes on a typewriter. I think it was just after my twenty-second birthday, and I felt it was my whole life gushing out - as I had felt about my people all my life."" "Since that time the astonishing young poet whose voice rose in cadences that praise and honor black America has never ceased to stir minds and hearts to action with her credos. She became indeed the renowned poet, novelist, lecturer, teacher, and sage Margaret Walker Alexander." "In commemoration of "For My People," her first publication, and in tribute to her richly productive life, the acclaimed photographer Roland L. Freeman has joined a photo essay to Margaret Walker's poem." ""I selected photographs that call to mind the special human elements evoked by Walker, so basic to everyday life, and yet not often celebrated, elements which unravel the real beauty and the tenacity for life of African-American people."" "With this marvelous collaboration both Walker and Freeman stimulate rejoicing for the spirit of the artist who perceives and depicts the rich and vital culture of black America." "In this jubilee year of a momentous poem, "For My People" continues to resound in the hearts of African-Americans and for all who love human freedom."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

An exploration of race and heritage, For My People is the first book by poet and novelist Margaret Walker (1915-1998) and the 41st volume of the Yale Series of Younger Poets.

A novel based on the life of the author's great-grandmother follows the story of Vyry, the child of a white plantation owner and one of his slaves, through the years of the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Representing an international gathering of scholars, Fields Watered with Blood constitutes the first critical assessment of the full scope of Margaret Walker’s literary career. As they discuss Walker’s work, including the landmark poetry collection For My People and the novel Jubilee, the contributors reveal the complex interplay of concerns and themes in Walker’s writing: folklore and prophecy, place and space, history and politics, gender and race. In addition, the contributors remark on how Walker’s emphases on spirituality and on dignity in her daily life make themselves felt in her writings and show how Walker’s accomplishments as a scholar, teacher, activist, mother, and family elder influenced what and how she wrote. A brief biography, an interview with literary critic Claudia Tate, a chronology of major events in Walker’s life, and a selected bibliography round out this collection, which will do much to further our understanding of the writer whom poet Nikki Giovanni once called “the most famous person nobody knows.”

A novel of the Civil War told by Vyry, the daughter of a white plantation owner and his beloved black mistress.

Moral Repair examines the ethics and moral psychology of responses to wrongdoing. Explaining the emotional bonds and normative expectations that keep human beings responsive to moral standards and responsible to each other, Margaret Urban Walker uses realistic examples of both personal betrayal and political violence to analyze how moral bonds are damaged by serious wrongs and what must be done to repair the damage. Focusing on victims of wrong, their right to validation, and their sense of justice, Walker presents a unified and detailed philosophical account of hope, trust, resentment, forgiveness, and making amends - the emotions and practices that sustain moral relations. Moral Repair joins a multidisciplinary literature concerned with transitional and restorative justice, reparations, and restoring individual dignity and mutual trust in the wake of serious wrongs.