Toni Cade Bambara

Toni Cade Bambara

Toni Cade Bambara was a native of New York City who devoted her life to her writing and her social activism. Throughout her career, Bambara used her writings to convey social and political messages about the welfare of the African-American community and of African-American women especially. According to Alice A. Deck in the Dictionary of Literary Biography, the author was "one of the best representatives of the group of Afro-American writers who, during the 1960s, became directly involved in the cultural activities in urban communities across the country." Deck also pointed out that "Bambara is one of the who continued to work within the black urban communities (filming, lecturing, organizing, and reading from her works at rallies and conferences). In addition, Bambara established herself over the years as an educator, teaching in colleges and independent community schools in various cities on the East Coast." Bambara's influence derived from the combination of her duties such as writer and social activist. "It's a tremendous responsibility and honor to be a writer, artist, a cultural worker...whatever you call this vocation," she explained in an interview in Black Women Writers. Bambara showed the world from a different perspective through the eyes of a factory worker or welfare children. Her objective was to describe the urban black community without resorting to stereotype.

Bambara experienced, directly or indirectly, some of the toughest ti...