Sister Souljah
(born 1964)
(born 1964)
Sister Souljah is an American hiphop-generation author, activist, recording artist, and film producer.. She is best known for Bill Clinton's criticism of her remarks about race in the U.S. during the 1992 presidential campaign. Clinton's well-known repudiation of her comments led to what is now known in politics as a Sister Souljah movement.
Souljah was born Lisa Williamson in THe Bronx, New York. She recounts in her autobiography that she was born into poverty and raised on welfare. At age 10 she moved with her family to the suburbs of Inglewood, New Jersey, a middle-lower class suburb with a strong African-American presence, a slight change from the big city feel of the Bronx. Inglewood is also home to other famous Black artists such as George Benson, Eddie Murphy, and Regina Belle.
Souljah took a very active and special interest in learning everything she could about African history, which she felt was left out of the education curriculum in the United States purposely: "I supplemented my education in the White American school system by reading African history, which was intentionally left out of the curriculum of American students." While at Dwight Morrow High School, a school that had a relatively even distribution of Black-, Latino-, and Jewish-student enrollment and a majority Black administration during the time of her studies, from 1978 to 1981. She was a legislative intern in the House of Representatives. Souljah was also the recipient of several honors during her teenage years. She won the American Legion's Constitutional Oratory Contest, a scholarship to attend Cornell University's Advanced Summer Program.
In 1995 Sister Souljah published a volume of autobiography titled No Disrespect. In 1999, she made her debut as a novelist with The Coldest Winter Ever. An indirect sequel of the novel, titled Midnight: A Gangster Love Story, originally scheduled for October 14, 2008, was published November 4, 2008, and entered The New York Times bestseller list at #7 its first week out and remained there as of February 2009. Another sequel, Midnight 2: Word is Bond, is to be published in 2010, and another novel, Porsche Santiaga, is due in 2011.
Souljah was born Lisa Williamson in THe Bronx, New York. She recounts in her autobiography that she was born into poverty and raised on welfare. At age 10 she moved with her family to the suburbs of Inglewood, New Jersey, a middle-lower class suburb with a strong African-American presence, a slight change from the big city feel of the Bronx. Inglewood is also home to other famous Black artists such as George Benson, Eddie Murphy, and Regina Belle.
Souljah took a very active and special interest in learning everything she could about African history, which she felt was left out of the education curriculum in the United States purposely: "I supplemented my education in the White American school system by reading African history, which was intentionally left out of the curriculum of American students." While at Dwight Morrow High School, a school that had a relatively even distribution of Black-, Latino-, and Jewish-student enrollment and a majority Black administration during the time of her studies, from 1978 to 1981. She was a legislative intern in the House of Representatives. Souljah was also the recipient of several honors during her teenage years. She won the American Legion's Constitutional Oratory Contest, a scholarship to attend Cornell University's Advanced Summer Program.
In 1995 Sister Souljah published a volume of autobiography titled No Disrespect. In 1999, she made her debut as a novelist with The Coldest Winter Ever. An indirect sequel of the novel, titled Midnight: A Gangster Love Story, originally scheduled for October 14, 2008, was published November 4, 2008, and entered The New York Times bestseller list at #7 its first week out and remained there as of February 2009. Another sequel, Midnight 2: Word is Bond, is to be published in 2010, and another novel, Porsche Santiaga, is due in 2011.
She also does occasional pieces for Essence Magazine and has written for The New Yorker.
