NEW YORK (AP) — Louise Meriwether, the author and activist whose coming-of-age novel "Daddy Was a Number Runner" is widely regarded as a groundbreaking and vital portrait of race, gender and class, has died.
"Daddy Was a Number Runner," published in 1970, tells of a poor Black community in Harlem during the 1930s as seen through the eyes of 12-year-old Francie Coffin.
Political Cartoons View All 1206 ImagesIn 2016 the Feminist Press and TAYO Literary Magazine launched the Louise Meriwether First Book Prize for "debut women/nonbinary writers of color."
"Daddy Was a Number Runner" was a personal story.
After returning to New York in the late 1960s, she joined the Harlem Writers Guild and befriended Angelou and Sonia Sanchez, among others.
Persons:
— Louise Meriwether, Meriwether, Cheryl Hill, Hill, Francie Coffin, Francie, I'm, Toni Morrison's, Angelou's, James Baldwin, Jacqueline Woodson, Louise Meriwether, Rosa Parks, Daniel Hale Williams, Robert Smalls, John Birch, Muhammad Ali's, Angelo Meriwether, Earle Howe, Louise Jenkins, Budd Schulberg, Angelou, Sonia Sanchez, Sarah Lawrence
Organizations:
Amsterdam Nursing, Feminist Press, Columbus Foundation, Los Angeles Times, IMF, World Bank, John Birch Society, Sarah Lawrence College, University of Houston, New York University, UCLA, Watts Writers, South Central, Universal Studios, Harlem Writers Guild, Pine Manor College
Locations:
Manhattan, Harlem, Puerto Rican, South Africa, Haverstraw , New York, Brooklyn, South, South Central Los Angeles, Hollywood, New York, Pine