He was profoundly influenced by what he described in Horn Book as the South ’s atmosphere of “deathly spiritual violence. There he was exposed to racism and segregation in the days before the civil rights movement gained strength. This connection to a Judaic forebear would become a treasure for Lester when he underwent his own conversion during the 1980s.Īs a child and teen, Lester spent summers in Arkansas with his grandmother. Lester was profoundly influenced by his father, a man who told stories in the southern rural black tradition, and by his grandmother, whose strange-sounding maiden name -Altschul - revealed that she was descended from Eastern European Jewry. He grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, and Nashville, Tennessee, where his father led congregations. Louis, Missouri, in 1939, the younger son of a Methodist minister. I think Judaism is the closest thing to the infinite within the finite that I have found. But I ’ve found something so huge that it ’s big enough for me to explore and never get bored or tired or worn out. He told Publishers Weekly, “I haven ’t reached an end to my explorations. ” Lester, who resists easy categorization both as an academic and as a writer, converted to Judaism in mid-life.

I will not be pinned by anyone ’s words, particularly my own. And anything anyone ventures to say about me will not be true. “I am almost fatally ill with people trying to impose their idea of me on me …. “One of my attributes is blackness, but that is not the sum total of my existence, and I refuse to allow society to make it so, ” Lester wrote in All Is Well. Lester has also penned two autobiographies, All Is Well and Lovesong: Becoming a Jew, both of which demonstrate his staunch individualism and rebellion against anyone -black or white -who would wish to judge him by his race alone. Especially in his books for children, Lester has been acclaimed for his blend of realistic detail, dialogue, and storytelling, all contributing to a compelling historical portrait of African Americans.

But he is perhaps best known for his award-winning fiction for young adults, a body of work that directly addresses the black American experience during and after slavery. Julius Lester has distinguished himself as a civil rights activist, musician, photographer, festival promoter, radio and talk show host, professor, poet, and novelist.

Julius lester uncle remus