Author and activist Louise Meriwether passed away. Her young adult novel “Daddy Was a Number Runner” was universally hailed as a breakthrough and essential picture of race, gender, and class. She was 100 years old.
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Numerous contemporary works, like Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” as well as Meriwether’s debut book, which sold hundreds of thousands of copies, contributed to the growth of Black women’s voices in literature.
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Meriwether was complimented by James Baldwin, who wrote the foreword, for explaining to “everyone who can read or feel what it means to be a black man or woman in this country.” Many people, including National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson, would subsequently attribute their desire to become authors to the book.
Louise Meriwether children: Does Louise Meriwether have kids?
At the age of 100, Meriwether passed away on October 10, 2023 from old age. Her four children, nine grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren all survived her. In the Bronx, New York, at Woodlawn Cemetery, she was laid to rest.


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