User:Kmaduschke/Elma Stuckey

Elma Stuckey Elma Stuckey was an African American poet who's work reflected the lives of Blacks from the days of slavery to the late 1980s1. Born in Memphis, Tennessee in (1907?), she obtained her teacher's certificate from Lane College in Jackson, TN and worked as a teacher and ran a nursery school in rural Tennessee before moving to Chicago in 1945, where she worked for the Illinois Department of Labor.

The granddaughter of slaves, Ms Stuckey authored two books of poetry: "The Big Gate" published in 1976 and "The Collected Poems of Elma Stuckey" published in 1987.

She died in September 1988 during a visit to Washington, D.C. where she was scheduled to record readings of her poetry for the Smithsonian Institution.

As a poet, Ms Stuckey first gained attention by reading her works on Studs Terkel's WFMT radio program. She also read at Harvard, Cornell and Stanford Universities as well as the University of California at Berkeley.