Julius Lester: Prolific Writer & Distinguished Educator
- Ninfa O. Barnard
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
During his career, Julius Lester wrote more than 40 books, taught history college courses for over thirty years, and received some of the most acclaimed awards in both writing and education. Lester, a prolific writer, photographer, activist, and esteemed educator, had both Jewish roots and spent his childhood summers in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
Julius Lester was born on January 27, 1939, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Julia Smith Lester and Woodie Daniel Lester. Lester’s father was a Methodist minister, while his mother was the daughter of a former slave and a German Jew who became a prosperous businessman after immigrating to Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
From 1941 to 1954, Lester lived in Kansas City, Kansas. In 1954, his family moved to Nashville, Tennessee. Nevertheless, he spent most of his summers at his grandmother’s farm in Pine Bluff. In 1956, Lester was accepted into Fisk University, a historically Black Institution in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1960, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English, although he had always wanted to pursue a career in music.
In 1961, he relocated to New York City to pursue a musical career. While there, he wrote songs, sang, and played numerous instruments, including the banjo, piano, and clarinet. He taught banjo and guitar lessons, recorded two albums, and performed as a folk singer, and performed alongside well-known musicians like Phil Ochs, Judy Collins, and Pete Seeger.
In 1964, during the Mississippi Freedom Project, also known as “Freedom Summer”, a civil rights campaign to register African American voters, Lester travelled to Mississippi. In 1966, he joined the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee (SNCC), becoming the head of its photography department in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1980, thirteen of the photographs he took while working with the SNCC during the Freedom Summer were included in the Smithsonian Institution’s exhibition “We’ll Never Turn Back: Photographs of the Civil Rights Movement.” His photographs also appeared in SNCC posters, calendars, and other fundraising materials.
From 1966 to 1973, he hosted a radio show on WBAI in New York City. From 1969 to 1971, he hosted a television show on New York’s WNET.
A prolific writer, Lester published over forty books during his career, including children’s books, poetry, novels, and nonfiction books. Moreover, more than 200 of his essays and reviews have been published in popular publications like the New York Times, the Village Voice, and the New Republic. He has received some of the nation’s top awards for his writing. In 1968, the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award and the Newbery Honor Medal for his book To Be a Slave. In 1983, 1988, and 2003, he received the Coretta Scott award for his books, This Strange New Feeling, The Tales of Uncle Remus: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit, and Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue, respectively. He was also a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Jewish Book Award. His memoir, Lovesong: Becoming a Jew, chronicles his connection to Arkansas and his Jewish heritage.
From 1968 to 1970, Lester taught at New York’s New School for Social Research. In 1971, he joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts (UMASS) at Amherst. During his 32 years at the university, Lester taught Afro-American studies and Judaic and Near Eastern studies. He also received three of the university’s most prestigious awards: the Distinguished Teacher’s Award, the Faculty Fellowship Award for Distinguished Research and Scholarship, and the Chancellor’s Medal, the university’s highest honor. He retired in 2003.
In 1995, the twice-divorced Lester married Milan Sabatini. On January 18, 2018, Lester died of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). He is survived by his wife and five children, Jody Simone, Malcolm Coltrane, Elena Milad, David Julius, and Lián Amaris.
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Written by: Ninfa O. Barnard