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People Name: Johnson, Josephine Winslow Born/Started: Jun. 20, 1910 Died/Ended: Feb. 27, 1990 Description: Josephine Winslow Johnson was a Pulitzer prize winning author, an artist, and a Civil Rights activist. Born in Kirkwood in 1910, she lived there until 1947. She and her three sisters went to Hanover School. Johnson then entered Lenox Hall and Washington University in 1927, where she studied both art and English. She began to publish poetry in Harper´s and Poetry and her book Now in November, published in 1934, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1935. She also won the St. Louis Writer´s Guild contest in 1934 for her poem "Ice Winter." After she became famous, she wrote articles in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about the conditions of the poor. She became a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Urban League and, with Fannie Cook, worked on the St. Louis Committee for the Rehabilitation of Sharecroppers. She also volunteered, painting murals at the Mission Free School and the Turner School for the Disabled and Delinquent Negro Children. Johnson was married twice. Her first husband was an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board and they divorced in 1941. Her second husband initially worked for the NLRB and, after WWII, became editor of the Farm Quarterly. In 1970 Johnson was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Washington University. |
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