Eloise Greenfield
(May 17, 1929- August 5, 2021)
“People are a part of their time. They are affected, during the time that they live, by the things that happen in their world. Big things and small things. A war, an invention such as radio or television, a birthday party, a kiss. All of these help to shape the present and the future. If we could know more about our ancestors, their experiences when they were children, and after they had grown up, too, we would know much more about what has shaped us and our world.”
- Eloise Greenfield, Childtimes: A Three-Generation Memoir
Born in 1929, maiden name Eloise Little was born in North Carolina and grew up in Washington, D.C. Ms. Eloise was an inner-city youth turned published author, publishing multiple books and poetry. During a time when the black community wasn’t depicted in a positive light, Ms. Eloise changed the dynamic of the African-American image, focusing her attention on the positive portrayal of the African-American Community and family. Ms. Greenfield received many awards for her work, including the Living Legacy Award from the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the Coretta Scott King Award, honoring her 1976 novel Africa Dream and the Coretta Scott King Honors for the Great Migration: Journey to the North, Night on Neighborhood Street, Nathaniel Talking, Childtimes, Mary McCleod Bethune and Paul Robeson, to name a few. Ms. Eloise Greenfield and her work will always be remembered.
“Harriet Tubman didn’t take no stuff,
Wasn’t scared of anything either.
Didn’t come into this world to be a slave,
And wasn’t going to stay one either…”
-Harriet Tubman, Eloise Greenfield
Click the link below to learn more about Eloise Greenfield:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/eloise-greenfield
