Toni Cade Bambara
Toni Cade Bambara, born Miltona Mirkin Cade on March 25, 1939, in New York City, was a pioneering African-American author, filmmaker, social activist, and educator.
Raised across Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey, she earned degrees from Queens College and City College, New York.
She taught at numerous institutions, including Rutgers, Spelman, and Emory, while actively participating in Civil Rights and Black Nationalist movements.
She added "Bambara" — a West African ethnic group's name — to her own in 1970.
Diagnosed with colon cancer in 1993, she died in 1995 at age 56, leaving an enduring literary legacy.
