Heavenly belated birthday wishes Charles W. Chestnutt! Born June 20, 1858, Charles Waddell Chesnutt was an African-American author, essayist, political activist, and lawyer, best known for his novels and short stories exploring complex issues of racial and social identity in the post-Civil War South. He died in 1932. Here are just a few of his notable works:
Heavenly belated birthday wishes Sutton E. Griggs! Born June 19, 1872, Sutton Elbert Griggs was an American author, Baptist minister, academic administrator, educator, publisher, and social activist. He is best known for his novel Imperium in Imperio, a utopian work that envisions a separate African-American state within the United States. He passed away in 1933. Some of his notable works:
Belated birthday wishes Angela Johnson! Born June 18, Angela Johnson is an award-winning children’s and young adult author, poet, and an 2003 McArthur Fellow. Here are just a few of the 40 books she has written since she began writing in 1989.
Happy birthday Velma Maia Thomas! Born June 18, Velma Maia Thomas is an author, and historian. She is also the creator and curator of the Black Holocaust Exhibit in Atlanta, Georgia. Here are a few of her notable works:
Heavenly birthday wishes James Weldon Johnson! Born June 17, 1871, James Weldon Johnson was an author, poet, civil rights activist and co-composer of Lift Every Voice and Sing. He died in 1938.
Heavenly happy birthday, Marita Bonner! Born June 16, 1899, Marita Bonner was an African American writer, essayist, and playwright who is commonly associated with the Harlem Renaissance. She passed away in 1971.
Heavenly belated birthday wishes George Wylie Henderson! Born June 14, 1904, George Wylie Henderson was an African American author of the Harlem Renaissance. He passed away in 1965.
Happy birthday Frank X. Walker! Born June 11, Frank X. Walker is an African American poet from Danville, Kentucky. Walker coined the word “Affrilachia”, signifying the importance of the African American presence in Appalachia: the “new word … spoke to the union of Appalachian identity and the region’s African-American culture and history”. He was the winner of the 2025 PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Collection for his book Load in Nine Times.
Happy birthday Paul Beatty! Born June 9, Paul Beatty is an African American American author and professor of writing at Columbia University. In 2016, he won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Man Booker Prize for his novel The Sellout. It was the first time a writer from the United States was honored with the Man Booker. Here are a few more of his works:
Belated heavenly birthday wishes Nikki Giovanni! Born June 7, 1943, Nikki Giovanni was an award winning poet, author, activist, professor and so much more! Her body of work is historical, social, political, and relevant today as it was it was written. She passed away in 2024. Here is just a little of her notable works:
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