Major Works
- Johnson Grass (2006) Fiction
- Roads from the Bottom: A Survival Journal for America’s Black community (1996)
Biography
Poet and author C.K. Chiplin was born in Vicksburg’s Marcus Bottom, a historic African American community, in 1947.
His book records life in Marcus Bottom, particularly his family’s experiences, in the Jim Crow Era. He went to high school at Rosa A Temple High School.
He attended Alcorn State University, where he earned is bachelor’s degree in Sociology in 1970. He attended several other schools of higher education including Tougaloo, Northeast Louisiana, Mississippi State University, University of South Carolina, and Arizona State.
He earned a master’s degree in Social Studies at Jackson State University in 1973. He obtained a doctoral degree at Jackson State University. He was an ordained minister and attended Mississippi Baptist Seminary.
He taught English at Jackson State University for several years. His poetry was published in the Jackson Advocate in the early to mid-1980’s. He was involved in the Civil Rights movement in Vicksburg.
He died in 2012. A memorial book award was established at Jackson State University in Jackson, Mississippi.
Related Websites
- Reviews on Amazon.com for Roads from the Bottom
- Interview with Chiplin. Civil Rights Documentation Project (1999)
- Jackson State to host auditions for feature length-film “Johnson Grass” 2011
- Dr. Charles Chiplin’s obituary in the Clarion Ledger (2012)
Bibliography
- Black Life in Mississippi: Essays on Political, Social, and Cultural Studies in a Deep South State. Julius Eric Thompson. 2001