EvelynDilworth-Williams
*Evelyn Dilworth-Williams was born on this date in 1945. She was a Black poet, teacher, author, and motivational speaker.
A native of Birmingham, Alabama, she is the seventh child of Guy and Bertha Dilworth, one of nine siblings, six older and three younger. Williams spent her early childhood living in the mining and farm community of Edgewater and Panola in Alabama. As a teenager and young adult, she actively participated in the 1963 American Civil Rights Movement and Voter Rights demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama.
She received her BA in Sociology from Miles College in Fairfield, Alabama. She is also a graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham with a Master's Degree Graduate School of Education in Guidance and Counseling, with additional study in Family Counseling. She is also a certified parenting facilitator by Active Parenting Publishers of Atlanta, Georgia. Williams is the author of three collections of poetry: Panola: My Kinfolks' Land, Morning Promises & My Evening Songs, and Polishing the Apples Children's Poetry.
Her poetry reflects her cultural heritage, her spirituality, and her daily lifestyle. Williams also uses poetry as a counseling tool for today's youth to take responsibility for their lives and extend their natural gifts and talents to improve the world. The historical struggles of the human experiences of Blacks worldwide greatly influence her poetry. She is also the author of "Pass It On: Echoes and Shadows," a song-dance/monologue historical fiction written in dialect about the heritage of Black America. Her parents' values of education enriched her life enormously, which resonates throughout her poetry.
Williams died on April 25, 2019, as a wife, mother of two married sons, and grandmother. Her two sons and other youth in her family are believers in education and are college graduates.
