Ahmos Zu-Bolton II
Ahmos Zu-Bolton II, born on October 21, 1935, in Poplarville, Mississippi, is a notable figure in the African American literary arts community. The eldest of thirteen children, he grew up in the rural educational environment of De Ridder, Louisiana, and left high school early to support his family. His early experiences included playing baseball in the American Negro Baseball League, where he dreamed of major league success. After returning to education, he became one of the first black students to integrate Louisiana State University and later served as a medic in the Army during the Vietnam War.
Zu-Bolton earned a B.A. in English literature and journalism and went on to teach at several universities, including Xavier and Tulane. He made significant contributions to the community through his involvement in literary activism, notably founding the poetry journal Hoo-Doo and organizing annual folk festivals that celebrated young artists. His efforts extended to establishing the Copastetic Book Center and the Diaspora Academy, both aimed at promoting African American culture and education. Through his initiatives and reflections on the impact of the Civil Rights movement, his legacy is rooted in the advancement of African American arts and community cohesion.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Ahmos Zu-Bolton II
- Born: October 21, 1935
- Birthplace: Poplarville, Mississippi
- Died: March 8, 2005
- Place of death: Washington, D.C.
Biography
Ahmos Zu-Bolton II was born on October 21, 1935, in Poplarville, Mississippi, to a career soldier, Ahmos, and Annie Lou McGee Bolton. The first of their thirteen children, he was raised and educated in the public schools of rural De Ridder, Louisiana, near the Texas border. In 1953, he left high school to help support his family by cutting sugar cane and doing general farm work. His father had taught him self-reliance and his math teacher whetted his appetite for reading by engaging him in literary discussions of such works as Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead and Richard Wright’s Native Son while the two played chess. He admitted to bumming around for awhile, mainly moving with his family to various European military outposts, despite being too old to be considered an official dependent.
From 1954 to 1957, Zu-Bolton traveled throughout the South as a shortstop for the Shreveport Twins of the American Negro Baseball League. These were happy years, when he earned $25 a game and all expenses paid for the season. He said: “Since we all knew about Jackie Robinson, it was a possible option of being so-called ’discovered’ and getting into the major leagues—sort of how Columbus ’discovered’ people who were already here.”
In 1962, Zu-Bolton returned to George Washington Carver High School in De Ridder, graduating in 1965. With scholarships from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the American Legion, he was chosen to be one of seventeen blacks to integrate Louisiana State University, attending from 1965 to 1967. He was drafted into the Army and served as a medic in Germany and Vietnam. After his discharge, he attended Los Angeles City College and then, in 1971, earned a B.A. in English literature and journalism from the California State Polytechnic University at Pomona. He went on to appointments as writer-in-residence at a number of colleges, including Howard, in Washington, D.C., and Georgia State, and was a professor of English at Xavier and Tulane Universities in New Orleans.
He may be known more for his service to the African American literary arts community than for his own writing. He did have a collection of poems published in 1975, A Niggered Amen: Poems, and did have works included in numerous anthologies and periodicals, but his greatest accomplishments had to do with his establishment of a poetry journal, Hoo-Doo, that was devoted to African American arts and activism, and his inauguration of a yearly poetry and musical folk festival celebrating young talent in the arts. Starting in 1977, he organized HooDoo festivals in New Orleans and in Galveston, Austin, and Houston, Texas.
He was awarded multiple fellowships and widely recognized for his service to the community. His skill at grant writing helped in the funding of African American arts. In 1983, he opened the Copastetic Book Center in Louisiana. and then in 1995 established the Diaspora Academy for New Orleans children. He was a cohesive force that brought together two factions in the community: those black nationalists who urged separatism and those integrationists who saw power coming from working within the system. Many of his works explored the price that the Civil Rights movement exacted: the disintegration of black-owned and -supported businesses, the marginalization of black educators, the loss of the Negro League. His legacy rests in his promotion of African American arts.