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• 1 2024-07-29T07:55:01-04:00 Katherine D. Tillman (1870-1923): Author Page 1 Biography and links to poems by Katherine Tillman, also known as Katherine Davis Chapman Tillman plain 2024-07-29T07:55:01-04:00
  This biography was reseearched and written by Sarah Thompson in July 2024.
  
  Born in 1870 in Mound City, Illinois, into a poor family, Katherine Davis Chapman Tillman had no formal education until moving to South Dakota at the age of twelve. Despite this late start, she began writing as a child and graduated from high school, subsequently publishing poems and essays in Our Women and Children and short stories in the Indianapolis Freedman. Her first poem “Memory” was published in 1888 in Christian Recorder, a venue she frequently contributed to in her early years. Tillman furthered her education at the State University of Louisville in Kentucky and Wilberforce University in Ohio. 
  
  After marrying George M. Tillman, a minister with the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, Katherine Tillman continued to write, even referring to her husband in poetry Recitations (1902) (see “The Pastor” in the collection). In this collection, she explored emancipation (see “A Hymn of Praise”), segregation (see “A Southern Incident”), Africa’s legacy and the transatlantic slave trade (see “America’s First Cargo of Slaves” and “Oh, Africa!”), the problem of colorism (see “Bashy” -- which also has a feminist undertone) to racism stunting interracial friendships (see “Black and White”), and horrific racialized violence (see “Ida B. Wells” and “Clotelle—A Tale of Florida”). Tillman’s sole collection is, in short, a thoughtful engagement with themes of social justice whose legacy still can be felt today. 
  
  Tillman also wrote fiction, essays, and drama, worked as an editor for Women’s Missionary Recorder, and held roles in women’s missionary societies. Her notable works include serialized novellas like Beryl Weston’s Ambition (1893) and Clancy Street (1898-1899) and short stories such as “Miles the Conqueror” (1894) and “The Preacher at Hill Station” (1903). A recognized dramatist, her play Fifty Years of Freedom, or From Cabin to Congress celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Tillman’s essays, like “Some Girls That I Know” (1893) and “Afro-American Poets and Their Verse (1898), emphasized racial uplift and opportunities for African American women. An active participant in social reform, she was involved in the women’s club movement and significant race reform organizations, including the NACWC. Katherine Tillman’s work is marked by her efforts to prove and secure the position of African Americans, especially women, in an era fraught with racialized politics and white supremacist violence. 
  
  Works Cited
  Beaulieu, Elizabeth Ann. Writing African American Women: An Encyclopedia of Literature by and about Women of Color [2 Volumes]. United Kingdom, Bloomsbury Academic, 2006.
  Tate, Claudia. Introduction. The Works of Katherine Davis Chapman Tillman, Tillman, Katherine Davis Chapman. United Kingdom, Oxford University Press, 1991.