Toni Cade Bambara

1939-1995

Toni Cade Bambara was a writer, activist, feminist, and filmmaker. Born Miltona Mirkin Cade on March 25, 1939, she lived the first ten years of her life in Harlem. Bambara credits the Harlem community as having a significant influence on her writing; she cites her mother as her greatest inspiration. While living on 151st Street between Broadway and Amsterdam, Miltona changed her name to "Toni" around kindergarten. The richly diverse population of the area contributed much to Bambara's life lessons. In 1959, she graduated from Queen's College with a B.A. in Theater Arts/English and her first published short story "Sweet Town" garnered the John Golden Award for Fiction. While completing her master's degree, Bambara served as the program director for Colony Settlement House in Brooklyn. She taught at City College of New York from 1965 to 1969 and during that time became involved with many activist and community groups.

In 1970, Bambara edited and published her first of several anthologies of non-fiction, fiction, and poetry, entitled The Black Woman. The Black Woman was a significant feminist text, widely read and quoted because it was one of the first collections to document and analyze Black women's experience through a feminist lens. This volume was quickly followed by her second anthology entitled Tales and Stories for Black Folks, published in 1971.

Though she preferred to write short stories, Bambara published her first novel, The Salt Eaters in 1980. Her nationalist and feminist commitments infuse the story which offers support and critique for both political movements. The Salt Eaters also raises ethical and ecological concerns about nuclear power and its by-products.The novel reflects Bambara's attempt to write stories that save our lives.

Bambara was also a filmmaker, winning an Academy Award for Best Documentary for her first film The Bombing of Osage Avenue (1986).