Margaret Taylor-Burroughs

American artist, poet, educator, and arts organizer, 1917–2010

BiographyMargaret Taylor Goss Burroughs was an American artist, poet, educator, and arts organizer. She was born in St. Rose, Louisiana, in 1917. By the time she was five years old, her family had moved to Chicago. In the early 1930s, while still in high school, Burroughs joined the Youth Chapter of the NAACP with her friend, the future poet, Gwendolyn Brooks, and marched to protest the lynching of African Americans in the South.

She earned certificates from Chicago Teachers College in 1936 and 1939, and in 1948 earned her Bachelor's and master’s in fine arts from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1946 and 1948. A force in Chicago, she taught at DuSable High School and Kennedy-King College, co-founded the DuSable Museum of African American History, and helped establish the South Side Community Art Center.

Throughout her career, Dr. Burroughs was fervently engaged in the enrichment and expression of African American artistic, political, and community life through education, promotion of the arts, and the creation of a historical consciousness.

Hemphill Gallery, Washington, DC

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