Katherine D. Tillman

Katherine Davis Chapman Tillman (February 19, 1870 – November 29, 1923) was an American writer.

Early life

Katherine Davis Chapman was born in Mound City, Illinois, the daughter of Laura and Charles Chapman.Claudia Tate, ed.
''The Works of Katherine Davis Chapman Tillman''
in ''The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers'' (Oxford University Press, 1991). pp. 3–65. Her mother was a teacher. She did not attend school until moving to Yankton, South Dakota, at about the age of twelve; her father raised hunting dogs in Yankton. She attended the State University of Kentucky (later called Simmons College of Kentucky) and Wilberforce University.

Career

In high school, Chapman began to write poetry and to correspond with periodicals and newspapers. Her first poem, "Memory", appeared in print in 1888, in ''The Christian Recorder''. That year she published a series of articles in ''The Christian Recorder'' and ''American Baptist'' which brought her some fame. She was also a contributor to the magazine, ''Our Women and Children'' and to the ''Indianapolis Freeman''.Penn, Irvine Garland. ''The Afro-American Press and its Editors''. Willey & Company, 1891, pp. 388–392. She would also write short stories, poetry, essays, and plays, and frequently contributed to religious magazines such as the nationally distributed '' A. M. E. Church Review''. Fiction by Tillman included the novellas ''Beryl Weston's Ambition: The Story of an Afro-American Girl's Life'' (1893) and ''Clancy Street'' (serialized, 1898–1899). She wrote historical plays, ''Thirty Years of Freedom'' (1902) and ''Fifty Years of Freedom'' (1910). Her book of poetry, ''Recitations'', was published in 1902. Her themes are often uplifting messages, especially addressed at young black women, as in this exhortation from "Afro-American Women and their Work" (1895):

''We have been charged with mental inferiority; now, if we can prove that with cultivated hearts and brains, we can accomplish the same that is accomplished by our fairer sisters of the Caucasian race, why then, we have refuted the falsehood.''

As a pastor's wife, she lived in various states, taught and lectured, and worked with church women's groups and missionary organizations. She was an officer of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs in the 1910s. During World War I, Katherine D. Tillman was appointed director of publicity for the National Association of Negro Women's Clubs, to highlight war work done by African-American women, with the Red Cross or in other capacities.

Personal life

Kate Chapman married the Rev. George M. Tillman in 1894. They had a daughter, Dorothy. Tillman fell ill and was hospitalized while attending the Eighth Quadrennial Convention of the Women's Parent Mite Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was held in Brooklyn on October 3–8, 1923. She died on Thanksgiving Day (November 29) in 1923.

In the 1960s and 1970s there was a Katherine D. Tillman Missionary Society at Bethel A. M. E. Church in Leavenworth, Kansas, named in her memory."Fifth Night Sunday Service"
''Leavenworth Times'' (December 27, 1963): 6. via Newspapers.com.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tillman, Katherine D.
1870 births
1923 deaths
19th-century American dramatists and playwrights
19th-century American essayists
19th-century American poets
19th-century American short story writers
19th-century American women writers
20th-century African-American women writers
20th-century African-American writers
20th-century American dramatists and playwrights
20th-century American essayists
20th-century American poets
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century American women writers
African-American dramatists and playwrights
African-American poets
African-American short story writers
American women dramatists and playwrights
American women essayists
American women in World War I
American women poets
American women short story writers
People from Mound City, Illinois
People from Yankton, South Dakota
Wilberforce University alumni
Writers from Illinois
Writers from South Dakota
African-American women short story writers