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 demonstrations and Voter Rights demonstration 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 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 as well as her daily lifestyle. Williams also uses poetry as a counseling tool for today's youth about taking responsibility for their lives and extending their natural gifts and talents to make the world a better place. Her poetry is greatly influenced by the historical struggles of the human experiences of Blacks throughout the world. 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 on education enriched her life enormously, which resonates throughout her poetry.
Williams died on April 25, 2019, she was a wife, mother of two married sons, and grandmother. Her two sons as well as other youth in her family are believers in education and are college graduates.
