"Within a few blocks: 212 Cascadilla St. was the birthplace of "Roots" author Alex Haley and the childhood home of Tuskegee Airman Verdelle Louis Payne; the idea for Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation's first Black fraternity, was hatched at 421 N. Albany St.; and Nobel Prize-winner Toni Morrison, M.A. '55, lived upstairs at 513 N. Albany St. during the first year of her master's program at Cornell."
"It allows us to conjure Morrison at 513 (N. Albany St.) and wonder whether something of Ithaca might have seeped into her work. For example, for those familiar with her novel 'Paradise,' maybe we could claim that the Calvary Baptist Church that plays such a critical role in that novel might have been inspired by the Calvary Baptist Church right next to her in Ithaca."
Toni Morrison, M.A. '55, lived upstairs at 513 N. Albany St. during the first year of her master's program at Cornell. On Feb. 19, faculty, staff, students and community members celebrated Morrison's 95th birthday by unveiling a historical marker at that Albany Street house and hosting a celebration at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC). The marker reads: Toni Morrison AKA Chloe Wofford, 1931-2019. M.A. Cornell University 1955. Nobel Prize in Literature, 1993. Presidential Medal of Freedom, 2012. Lived here. The Toni Morrison Collective spearheaded the marker project and has distributed Morrison's books, held community discussions, hosted academic conferences and sponsored films in Ithaca.
Read at Cornell Chronicle
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