John Oliver Killens

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John Oliver Killens: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Born	January 14, 1916 • Macon • Georgia
Died	October 27, 1987 (aged 71) • New York City • New York
Founder	Harlem Writers Guild
Notable Works	“And Then We Heard the Thunder” • “Black Man’s Burden” • “Great Black Russian: A Novel on the Life and Times of Alexander Pushkin” • “Great Gittin’ Up Morning” • “’Sippi” • “The Cotillion; or, One Good Bull Is Half the Herd” • “Youngblood”
Role In	American civil rights movement

James Baldwin

James Baldwin

American author

Ishmael Reed

Ishmael Reed

American author

June Jordan.

June Jordan

American author

George W. Cable

George W. Cable

American author

Charles Dudley Warner

American essayist

Paul Auster

Paul Auster

American author

Ha Jin

Ha Jin

Chinese American writer

Louis Auchincloss (centre) with Pres. George W. Bush and Laura Bush after receiving the National Medal of Arts, 2005.

Louis Auchincloss

American author

Diane Johnson

American author and academic

Elizabeth Hardwick

American writer

Susan Augusta Fenimore Cooper

American writer and philanthropist

Wilfrid Sheed

Wilfrid Sheed

American author

Alice Walker

Alice Walker

American writer

Toni Morrison

Toni Morrison

American author

Rita Dove

Rita Dove

American author

Jesmyn Ward

Jesmyn Ward

American author

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ta-Nehisi Coates

American author

Charlotte Forten Grimké

Charlotte Forten Grimké

American abolitionist and educator

Stanley Crouch

American journalist and critic

Frances E.W. Harper

Frances E.W. Harper

American author and social reformer

Quiz

Martin Luther King, Jr. (center), with other civil rights supporters lock arms on as they lead the way along Constitution Avenue during the March on Washington, Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963.

Pop Quiz: 17 Things to Know About the American Civil Rights Movement

Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) portrait by Carl Van Vecht April 3, 1938. Writer, folklorist and anthropologist celebrated African American culture of the rural South.

American Writers Quiz

Martin Luther King, Jr. (left of centre) and Malcolm X (right) waiting for a press conference, 1964.

American Civil Rights Movement Quiz