(1960), I’m Sorry (1962), and The Vampires of Har-
lem (1972). His books include Black Drama: The
Story of the American Negro in the Theatre (1967),
The Stubborn Old Lady Who Resisted Change
(1973), and Voices of the Black Theatre (1975).
Mitchell was the recipient of numerous awards,
including a Guggenheim fellowship for creative
writing in drama (1958), a Rockefeller Foundation
grant (1961), the Harlem Cultural Council spe-
cial award for writing (1969), a playwriting award
from the Research Foundation of the State Univer-
sity of New York (1974). He received a Tony Award
nomination for Bubbling Brown Sugar (1976), Best
Musical of the Year in London for Bubbling Brown
Sugar (1977), and the Outstanding Theatrical Pio-
neer Award, Audience Development Committee
(AUDELCO) in 1979.
On May 14, 2001, Mitchell died in Queens, New
York. His manuscript collections are housed at
State University of New York at Binghamton, the
New York City Library Schomburg Collection, Tal-
ladega College in Alabama, and Boston University.
Loretta Gilchrist WoodardMitchell, Margaree King (1953– )
Margaree King Mitchell was born July 23, 1953, in
Holly Springs, Mississippi, to Joe and Susie Mae
King, Jr. She grew up on the family farm and at-
tended Brandeis University, where she earned a
B.S. degree in education.
Although she has written and published short
stories and numerous television scripts, Mitchell is
best known for her two award-winning children’s
books: Uncle Jed’s Barbershop (1993) and Grand-
daddy’s Gift (1996). Set in the segregated South,
where hospital occupants were separated accord-
ing to race, Uncle Jed’s Barbershop is a heartwarm-
ing story about unselfish giving and returning to
give up one’s dreams. Uncle Jed, an itinerant bar-
ber who services black sharecroppers and their
families, who pay him with farm goods and food,
dreams of one day owning his own barbershop.
But when Sara Jean, the narrator, becomes sick
and needs money for surgery, Uncle Jed willingly
provides the money he had been saving, deferring
his dream. The Great Depression compounds Jed’s
financial situation, as his entire savings are lost in
the crash. Jed holds onto his dream, nevertheless,
fulfilling it at age 79 when he opens his own bar-
bershop, encouraged by the dignity, pride, and joy
of all his family members, including Sara Jean.
In Granddaddy’s Gift Mitchell addresses directly
southern black life under Jim Crow laws, specifi-
cally, African Americans’ struggle to get the right
to vote. Called Little Joe because she follows her
grandfather, Joe Morgan, a Mississippi farmer, ev-
erywhere he goes, Mitchell’s main character learns
about the world she lives in and how it denies
blacks access to their rights and responsibilities
as citizens when she decides she no longer needs
to attend school because she already knows how
to read and write. To illustrate the alternative to
an education, her grandfather (who affectionately
calls her “Daughter”) drives Little Joe to school,
passing by cotton fields filled with workers, includ-
ing some her age. Her grandfather insists that her
education will be a great investment.
When her grandfather, who never had the op-
portunity to go to school but learned to read nev-
ertheless, is selected to test the laws that prohibit
blacks from voting, Little Joe is called upon to bear
witness to the way he and the black community are
harassed simply for trying to exercise their rights
as American citizens. When her grandfather stud-
ies Mississippi’s state constitution, takes the test,
and passes it to demonstrate he is literate, Little
Joe celebrates his and the community’s determi-
nation and victory. As a result of her grandfather’s
effort and victory, Little Joe is able to register to
vote on her 18th birthday without having to en-
dure the harassment her grandfather had known.
Her grandfather has paved the way. By standing
up for his rights, he has given her the greatest gift
he can.
Margaree King Mitchell is the winner of several
awards and honors for her sensitively written and
beautifully illustrated children stories, including a
Best of 1993 citation from the Society of School
Librarians, a Coretta Scott King Honor Award, a
Notable Children’s Trade Book citation from theMitchell, Margaree King 363