On August 5, 2019, Nobel Prize winning African American author Toni Morrison died.

“My grandfather bragged all the time that he had read the Bible. And it was illegal in his life to read. Ultimately I knew that words have power.”
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

Toni Morrison, Author (1931-2019)
Issued for Black Heritage month
Released in 2023 by the US post office
Designer: Ethel Kessler
Photographer: Deborah Feingold

Toni Morrison changed the landscape of American literature with The Bluest Eye, and has been changing it with every other book she’s published. There’s no one writing today about the history of this country like Morrison does, yet she too often gets relegated to questions about race. Her narratives arc the whole American experience […] She’s writing more honest narratives about the interplay of the human heart and the human mind than anybody else today. 
About Toni Morrison | Academy of American Poets

Toni Morrison: African American Writer (myblackhistory.net)

Toni Morrison on family bonds, race and coping with personal tragedy | CBC Radio