On this day in Alabama history: Author and journalist Ellen Tarry born
The Third Door: The Autobiography of an American Negro Woman by Ellen Tarry. (University of Alabama Press, Bibliovault)
Sept 26, 1906
Ellen Tarry – one of Alabama’s connections to the Harlem Renaissance – was born on this day in 1906.
An author and journalist, Tarry was part of a movement which included poet Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and James Weldon Johnson. Her worldview was informed by experiences outside the state but came full-circle to her autobiography published in 1955. That book, written immediately after the Brown v. Board of Education decision, was more optimistic than most.
She is known in children’s literature circles for three books (Janie Belle, Hezekiah Horton and My Dog Rinty), and later participated in the March on Washington and the Selma-to-Montgomery March.
Tarry died in New York City at the age of 101.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
