Mildred D. Taylor Day Celebration

Mildred D. Taylor Day in Mississippi, celebrated April 2 in conjunction with the 2004 Oxford Conference for the Book, proved to be a great success for all involved—from schoolchildren to conference participants to the award-winning novelist herself.

“This is overwhelming and something that I never thought would happen,” said Taylor, who in a special ceremony at the University’s Ford Center for the Performing Arts accepted a proclamation signed by Governor Haley Barbour declaring April 2 Mildred D. Taylor Day across the state. “When I received the letter from Ann Abadie saying I would be honored by the state of Mississippi if I would come here, I was totally stunned and everybody to whom I read that letter was totally stunned.”

Taylor—who won the 1977 Newbery Award for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry as well as several other prestigious awards for her work–credited her family with her success as a storyteller and recognized them at the Ford Center ceremony.

“This is just unbelievable and one of the greatest honors I’ve ever received as a writer,” Taylor said. “It’s a great honor to my family, too—I can’t accept any honors concerning my books without also giving honor to my family, because I wouldn’t have written the books if it were not for the family who passed the stories on.”

Taylor’s nine novels are set in Mississippi, where she was born, and follow a single African American family as they struggle through life in the years before the civil rights movement. Although Taylor’s late father moved her family to Toledo, Ohio, soon after she was born, and although Taylor was educated at the University of Toledo and the University of Colorado, she held on tightly to the stories of life in Mississippi, where she visited regularly as a child.

Many of Taylor’s paternal uncles and an aunt upon whom she based her characters were actually present for the ceremony. Also, many of Taylor’s family members took part in the ceremony; her cousins read letters written to her by her grandmother, and Taylor’s daughter spoke about the writer’s name.

Also taking part in the ceremony were Oxford mayor and Square Books owner Richard Howorth, University Chancellor Robert Khayat, Assistant Professor of English and African American Studies Ethel Young-Minor, Mississippi Library Commission Executive Director Sharman Bridges Smith, and Policy Advisor to the Governor Jason S. Dean.

A skit from Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, adapted and performed by Oxford schoolchildren, was especially well received by the Ford Center audience, which included some 500 area fifth graders. Sporting orange Mildred D. Taylor Day T-shirts, the fifth graders had all received copies of Roll of Thunder thanks to the Lafayette County Literacy Council, the Oxford Junior Auxiliary, and the Central Elementary PTA.

The highlight of the ceremony, though, was Taylor herself, who movingly spoke about how Roll of Thunder came to be published and how she knew she would win the Newbery. Not sure how to finish the book, the words of the song “Roll of Thunder”came to Taylor, she said, as she was doing laundry in her parents’ Ohio home. Taylor finished her talk by singing a verse from the spiritual to a rousing standing ovation, one of many she received during the celebration of Mildred D. Taylor Day.

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