Reflections in Black: bell hooks (Gloria Jean Watkins)

bell hooks was born Gloria Jean Watkins in 1952 in Hopkinsville, Ky. to a poor working class family. As a child, she performed poetry readings for her church community and was heavily influenced by her great-grandmother Bell Hooks. hooks attained degrees from Stanford, the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of California-Santa Cruz. In her first major book, Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, hooks explored the intersection of race, sex and class at the core of black women's lives. In addition to publishing more than 30 books and scholary articles throughout her career, hooks has taught at various colleges and universities across the U.S.. This is her story.