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Mildred Delois Taylor (born September 13 1943 in Jackson, Mississippi) is an American author, known for her works exploring the struggle faced by African-American families in the Deep South.

Biography

Taylor was born in Jackson, Mississippi and grew up in Toledo, Ohio. Her parents are Deletha Marie Davis Taylor and Wilbert Lee Taylor. Life in the racially segregated South was difficult and sometimes unpleasant for Wilbert Taylor, so a few weeks after Taylor’s birth, he boarded a train bound for Ohio hoping to establish a home in the North where his family would have opportunities that wouldn’t be possible in Mississippi. Within a week he had found a factory job in Toledo, and two months after that, when Taylor was three months old, he brought his family to the North. It wasn’t long before many members of Taylor’s extended family followed her family to Ohio, and for much of her childhood, she was surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins .

In the 1950s, Taylor attended newly integrated schools in Toledo; she graduated from Scott High School in 1961 and from the University of Toledo in 1965. After graduating from the University of Toledo, she spent two years in Ethiopia with the Peace Corps. Returning to the United States, she recruited for the Peace Corps before entering the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado .

At Uof C she was a member of the Black Student Alliance. Taylor worked with students and university officials in structuring a Black Studies program at the university. Upon receiving her master's degree, she worked in the Black Education Program as study skills coordinator . Taylor moved to Los Angeles to pursue her writing career.

Taylor currently lives in Colorado.

Author's Statement

These anecdotes became very clear in Mildred’s mind. In fact, once she recalled that as the adults talked about the past “I began to visualize all the family who had once known the land, and I felt as if I knew them, too...” Taylor has talked about how much history was in the stories; some stories took place during times of slavery and some post-slavery.

Her saga about the Logan family is really based on her whole family history. For example, it starts out with The Land, which is based on the stories she heard about her great-grandfather, who was the son of a white plantation owner and a black woman in Alabama and how he purchased land. She is currently working on her last book, Logan, that finishes the saga off with the Logan family moving from Mississippi to Ohio.

In 1978 there was an ABC television miniseries adaptation of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. It starred Claudia McNeil(Big Ma) and Morgan Freeman(Uncle Hammer).

Books Written

Logan Family Series

• 1975: Song of the Trees

In this beautifully-written first book about the Logan Family, we're introduced to them. Cassie loves to listen to the trees. But can she save the old forest from being turned into lumber?

• 1976: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Set in Mississippi at the height of the Depression, it is the story of one family's struggle to maintain their integrity, pride, and independence in the face of racism and social injustice.

• 1981: Let the Circle Be Unbroken

Dramatic sequel to Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, this book continues the story of the family's struggle during the Great Depression.

• 1990: Mississippi Bridge (narrated by the Logan's Anglo friend Jeremy Simms.)

Set in Mississippi in the 1930s, this is a gripping story of racial injustice.

• 1990: The Road to Memphis

Cassie recounts harrowing events during late 1941 while she is a high school senior attending school in Jackson, Mississippi. Three harrowing, unforgettable days in the life of an African-American high school girl dreaming of law school. Caught up in the center of tense racial dramas unfolding around her, Cassie Logan is forced to confront the adult world as never before.

• 1995: The Well: David's Story

About the Logan patriarch David when he was 10 years old. During a drought, the Logan family shares their well water with all their neighbors, black and white alike. But David and Hammer find it hard to share with Charlie Simms, who torments them because they are black. Hammer's pride and Charlie's meanness are a dangerous mixture, and tensions build and build. Narrated by young David Logan, Cassie's father in Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, this extraordinary story is filled with characters and events so real that they're unforgettable .

• 2001: The Land (Mildred D. Taylor)

The son of a prosperous Anglo landowner and a former slave, Paul-Edward Logan is unlike any other boy he knows. At the age of fourteen, he sets out toward the only dream he has ever had: to find land every bit as good as his father's, and make it his own.

Other Books:

• 1987: The Gold Cadillac

Based on the trips Taylor took to the South as a child with her family.

• 1987: The Friendship

In the 1930s in rural Mississippi, the four Logan children witness the course of a relationship between an AfricanAmerican and Anglo man in 1930s Mississippi that eventually becomes violent.

References

1. ^ http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/dir/taylor_mildred Mildred D. Taylor,Mississippi Writers Page
2. http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Author/AuthorPage/0,,1000031974,00.html Taylor's Bio on Penguin Publishers Website
3. http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780140386424,00.html?The_Well_Mildred_D._Taylor The Well summary on Penguin Publishers Website

External Links

• Mississippi Writers Page Links: Mildred D.Taylor

• Mildred D.Taylor @ Penguin Publishers Website

• Living people
• 1943 births
• Newbery Medal winners
• Peace Corps volunteers
• African American writers