Departures of note

Mildred Pitts Walter was born on September 9, 1922, in Sweetville, Louisiana, and raised in segregated sawmill communities in Beauregard Parish. She earned a bachelor's degree in English from Southern University at New Orleans and later moved to Los Angeles, where she worked as a kindergarten teacher in South Central Los Angeles during the 1950s and 1960s. It was there that she realized her students were not represented in the books they read, inspiring her to become a writer.

Walter published her first book, Lillie of Watts, in 1969, beginning a career that would span more than 20 children's books including both fiction and nonfiction. Her works included Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World, which won the Coretta Scott King Award in 1986, and Mississippi Challenge, a historical account of African Americans in Mississippi. She also wrote The Second Daughter, a historical fiction novel based on the true story of a former slave who sued for her freedom.

In addition to her writing, Walter was active in civil rights activism as a member of the Congress of Racial Equality. She moved to Denver, Colorado, in 1970, where she earned a master's degree in education and worked as a consultant and lecturer. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 1996 and published her autobiography, Something Inside So Strong, in 2019. Walter died on May 19, 2026, at the age of 103.