Toni Morrison was the first black woman to receive a Novel Prize award. In 1970 Toni Morrison wrote her first book called "The Bluest Eye" which soon after gaining the attention of both critics and a wider audience for epic power, unerring ear for dialogue and her poetically expressive depictions of Black America (www.nobel ).
Toni was born on February 18, 1931 in Lorain, Ohio, a steel town twenty-five miles west of Cleveland, where she grew up most of her early life (Colby). She was born Chloe Anthony Wofford. Her parents Ramah and George Wofford were not poor, but were a black working class family. She was the second of four children. Her father was a shipyard welder. Her parents moved to Ohio hoping to find better opportunities and to escape the racist attitudes. She was brought up to be proud of her heritage. This is where she heard many songs and tales of Southern black folklore. She displayed an early interest in literature. .
When she went to a school in first grade she was the only black student and she was the only one that could read. She was friends with many of the white students and it was when she got older that she was discriminated against (www.cob ).
She loved the arts and she wanted to become a dancer and she loved to read. She was an excellent student and she graduated with honors from Lorain High School in 1949.
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She majored in English at Howard University where she got her B.A. in English. She then went to Cornell University where she received a master's degree in1955. Cornell University is where she wrote her master's thesis on the works of Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner. Since people couldn't pronounce her name correctly she changed it to Toni a shortened version of her middle name. Her real name was Chloe. In 1955 she went to Texas Southern University to teach introductory English. In 1957 she returned to Howard University as a member of the faculty (www.