My Soul Look Back in Wonder: Memories from a Life of Study, Struggle, and Doin Battle in the Language Wars - Paperback

by Geneva Napoleon Smitherman (Author)

This is the story of Dr. Geneva Smitherman, aka "Dr. G," the pioneering linguist often referred to as the "Queen of Black Language." As Dr. G enters her eighth decade, she seeks to share the meaning and purpose of a life of study and struggle and its significance for all those who seek racial and social justice today.

Author Biography

Dr. Geneva Napoleon Smitherman is University Distinguished Professor Emerita at Michigan State University, USA. A former high school English and Latin teacher in Detroit and a scholar-activist in Black Studies, she has been at the forefront of the struggle for language rights since the 1960s. She is author of six books, including Black Language and Culture (1975), Talkin and Testifyin (1977), Talkin That Talk (2000), and Routledge Linguistics Classic Word from the Mother (2021). She is co-author or editor of ten books, including Articulate While Black (with Dr. H. Samy Alim, 2012).