In 1942, Margaret Walker won the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award for her poem For My People. This accomplishment marked the beginning of Margaret Walker's literary career, which spanned from the edge of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1930s to the dawn of the Black Arts Movement in the 1960s (Gates and McKay 1619 ). Through her fiction and poetry, Walker became an important voice in the African American community. His writings, particularly his seminal novel, Jubilee, expose his readers to the plight of his race by reporting on the struggles of African Americans from the period before the Civil War to the present day and, ultimately, maintain this grip of conscience relevant to contemporary American society. Margaret Walker was born July 7, 1915, in Birmingham, Alabama, to Rev. Sigismund C. Walker and Marion Dozier Walker (Gates and McKay 1619). His father, a learned Methodist minister, passed on his passion for literature to him. His mother, a music teacher, gave him an innate sense of rhythm through music and storytelling. His parents not only provided a supportive environment throughout his childhood, but also emphasized the values ​​of education, religion, and black culture. Much of Walker's ability to write realistically about African American life dates back to his early exposure to his black heritage. Born in Alabama, she was deeply influenced by the Harlem Renaissance and received personal encouragement from Langston Hughes. During the Depression, she worked for the WPA Federal Writers Project and assisted Richard Wright, becoming his close friend and later his biographer. In 1942, she was the first African American to win the Yale Younger Poets Award for her poem For My People (Gates and McKay 1619). Her publishing career ended during...... middle of paper...... was meant to be shared, to be remembered; it was made without exception, made for all to witness and remember a rich black history, even with its brutality. Works Cited Gates, Henry Louis and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: WW Norton &, 1996. Print. Klotman, Phyllis. “'Oh Freedom' — Women and History in Margaret Walker's Jubilee. » Black American Literature Forum 11.4 (Winter 1977): 139-145. JSTOR. Web.December 8, 2013. “Margaret Walker. » The Poetry Foundation. Np, and Web. December 9, 2013..McCray, Judith. “FOR MY PEOPLE: THE LIFE AND WRITING OF MARGARETWALKER.” Californian newsreel. NP, 1998. Web. December 08, 2013..Walker, Margaret. How I wrote Jubilee. Chicago: Third World, 1972. Print.