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Harriet G. Robinet Harriet Gillem Robinet is a woman who grew up in Washington, D.C., and earned a graduate degree in microbiology at the College of New Rochelle. Later she changed her interest from teaching to writing. She and her family moved from Chicago to Oak Park in 1965, at a time when Oak Park was struggling to embrace the issue of “Open Housing.” The Robinets were greeted fairly well by many of the neighbors, but still faced discrimination and ignorance. Harriet wrote her first major story in Redbook Magazine in 1968. She had opened the eyes of many readers and had gained recognition for her cause of African American civil rights. She and her husband helped to fight discrimination by marching in civil rights parades and they attended public meetings and tried to sell the idea of “non-violence as a way to open decent housing to Negroes.” Today, Robinet writes stories that portray African American characters living at a time of a real American event. Some of her stories have been about the Battle of New Orleans, the burning of Washington, D.C., and slavery. She tries to encourage young children to read and write and to enjoy learning. She patented her own write-along workshops for young children. She takes elementary age children and teaches them how to write and to be creative. Aside from writing children’s novels, Robinet has been a free-lance writer and lecturer. She still lives in Oak Park with her husband and continues to be active in her writing. |
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