On August 5, 2019, novelist Toni Morrison, the first Black woman awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, passed away at the age of 88. Her 11 novels were translated into dozens of languages, and she is considered a towering figure in African American literature. For almost 50 years, Morrison shed light on what had been kept quiet, hidden, in U.S. history. She put words to a silenced Black history.

On August 5, 2019, novelist Toni Morrison, the first Black woman awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, passed away at the age of 88. Her 11 novels were translated into dozens of languages, and she is considered a towering figure in African American literature. For almost 50 years, Morrison shed light on what had been kept quiet, hidden, in U.S. history. She put words to a silenced Black history.