relate to the emotional content that Walker alludes
to in her writing. So in a sense, the poem continues
to grow along with readers. The poem’s themes of
memory and strength speak to every generation.
Originally published in Walker’s 1942 collection
For My People, ‘‘Lineage’’ can also be found in
Walker’s 1989 volumeThis Is My Century: New
and Collected Poems.
Author Biography
Born on July 7, 1915, in Birmingham, Alabama,
Margaret Abigail Walker was encouraged at a
young age to read philosophy and poetry. Her
father, Sigismund C. Walker, an educator and
Methodist minister, and her mother, Marion,
a music teacher, provided Walker with good
examples of intellectual pursuit. After high school,
Walker attended New Orleans University for two
years. However, the writer Langston Hughes urged
her to go to a northern school to seek more
formal training in writing. Walker agreed and
transferred to Chicago’s Northwestern Univer-
sity, where at twenty, she received her bachelor’s
degree in English.
After graduating, Walker went to work with
the Federal Writers’ Project, a government sup-
ported work group created after the Great Depres-
sion, which caused extremely high unemployment.
There were other prominent black writers also
involved with the federal program at this time,
including Gwendolyn Brooksand Richard Wright,
whowouldbothgoontobecomenationally
recognized literary figures. Much later in her
life, Walker would publish a biography and
critical analysis of Wright’s work calledRichard
Wright, Daemonic Genius: A Portrait of the Man,
A Critical Look at His Work(1988). This biogra-
phy of Wright caused a strain in their otherwise
congenial relationship, a rift that neither Walker
nor Wright completely explained.
In 1942, Walker earned her master’s degree
from the University of Iowa, where she majored
in creative writing. Her thesis for her degree won
the Yale Younger Poets Award, making her the
first African American to win this prestigious
award. The thesis was Walker’s poem ‘‘For My
People’’ (1942), which many critics consider her
best work. This poem as well as the poem ‘‘Lin-
eage’’ were published in 1942 in Walker’s collec-
tionFor My People.
Walker married Firnist James Alexander,
an interior designer, in 1943. She and her hus-
band eventually raised four children. Despite the
demands of motherhood, Walker continued to
work. She taught at several black colleges before
accepting a position in 1949 at Jackson State
University in Mississippi, where she remained
until she retired. It was in Jackson that the poet
founded the Institute for the Study of the His-
tory, Life and Culture of Black People in 1968.
The center was later named in her honor.
It was while working for her doctorate at the
University of Iowa that Walker wrote the book for
which she is best known.Jubilee(1966), an award-
winning novel set during the Civil War, was her
doctoral dissertation. The protagonist is a slave
and is based on Walker’s great-grandmother.
Walker’s next publication wasProphets for a
New Day(1970), her second collection of poems,
which spoke to the civil rights movement. Poetry
dominated her writing in the following years. She
publishedOctober Journeyin 1973;A Poetic Equa-
tion: Conversations between Nikki Giovanni and
Margaret Walkerin 1974; andThis Is My Country:
New and Collected Poemsin 1988. Walker contin-
ued to work, writing, touring, and lecturing, until
she died of cancer in Chicago at the age of eighty-
three, on November 30, 1998.Poem Text
My grandmothers were strong.
They followed plows and bent to toil.
They moved through fields sowing seed.
They touched earth and grain grew.
They were full of sturdiness and singing. 5Margaret Walker(AP Images)
Lineage