'A compass on the map of human geography'

 

“History is not everything, but itis a starting point. History is a clock that people use to tell their politicaland cultural time of day. It is a compass they use to find themselves on themap of human geography. It tells them where they are but, more importantly,what they must be.”  –John Henrik Clarke

 

Born a Georgia sharecropper’s sonon this date in 1915, Clarke was told in 3rd grade that he should bea writer, and it became a goal he pursued from that point forward.  Ultimately, he would write six scholarly booksand hundreds of essays and short stories before his death in 1998.

 

A leading force in the HarlemWriters' Workshop during the 1930s, Clarke served in World War II beforereturning to writing and then teaching. He co-founded Harlem Quarterly magazine and taught at Cornell andColumbia Universities before spending several years teaching at majoruniversities in Africa.  After returningto the States, he edited several anthologies by African American writers and ofhis own short stories.

      

A champion for people to seek outand write about their roots, he noted, “A people's relationship to theirheritage is literally the same as the relationship of a child to its mother.”