"Toni Cade Bambara"(March 25,1939-December 9,1995)

Was an African American author,documentary,film-maker,social activist and a college professor.
She was born in New York City to parents Walter & Helen (Henderson) Cade.She grew up in Harlem,Bedford Stuyvesant (Brooklyn),Queens and New Jersey.In 1970 she changed her name to include the name of  a West African ethnic group,Bambara.
Toni graduated from Queens College with a B.A.in Theatre Arts/English Literature in 1959,then studied mime at the Ecole de Mime Etienne Decroux in Paris,France.
She also became interested in dance before completing her master's degree in American Studies at City College,New York (1962),while serving as program director of Colony Settlement House in Brooklyn.Toni also worked for New York social services and as a recreation director in the psychiatric ward of Metropolitan hospital.From 1965-1969 she was city College's Search for education,elevation,Knowledge-program.Toni taught English,published material and worked with SEEK's black theatre group.Toni was made assistant professor of English at Rutgers University's new Livingston College in 1969,was visiting professor in Afro-American Studies at Emory University and at Atlanta University (1977),where she also taught at the school of Social Work (until 1979).She was writer-in-residence at Neighborhood Arts Center (1975-79),at Stephens College at Columbia,Missiouri (1976) an at Atlanta's and at Atlanta's Spellman College (1978-79).From 1986 Toni taught film-script writing at Louis Massiah's Scribe Video Center in Philadelphia.
Toni participated in several community and activists organizations,and her work was influenced by the civil rights and Black Nationalist movements of the 1960s.Toni went on propaganda trips to Cuba in 1973 and to Vietnam in 1975.She moved to Atlanta Georgia,with her daughter Karma Bene,and became a founding member of the Southern Collective of African American Writers.
She was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1993 and died and died of it in 1995.