Michelle Duster Biography

Michelle Duster is a racial and gender justice advocate, author, lecturer, and public historian. She has spearheaded and supported hundreds of local, state, and national campaigns to memorialize her paternal great-grandmother Ida B. Wells and other Black Female historical heroes with street names, plaques, murals, and monuments. She's worked on documentaries for PBS and coordinated film festivals. She's written for TIME, Essence, HuffPost, Teen Vogue, People, Glamour, Daily Beast, and the North Star in the last 10 years. She's been on MSNBC, CNN, WTTW, CBS, and The CW, as well as a variety of radio shows. She has also authored, edited, or contributed to sixteen books. Ida B. the Queen: The Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells, her most recent book, was published by Atria/One Signal Publishers on January 26, 2021. (a division of Simon & Schuster). Tate and His Historic Dream, a popular children's history book, was co-written by her, and she also authored and edited two volumes including Ida B. Wells' writings, Ida In Her Own Words and Ida From Abroad. Shifts: An Anthology of Women's Growth Through Change, as well as Michelle Obama's Impact on African American Women and Girls, were co-edited by her. Michelle was born and raised on Chicago's South Side. Dartmouth College awarded her a B.A. in Psychology, and The New School in New York City awarded her an M.A. in Media Studies. She also attended Columbia College Chicago for an MFA in film and video production. She has won several honors, including the Illinois Human Rights Commission's 2019 Multi-Generational Activist Award and Dartmouth College's 2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Social Justice Award. She presently teaches and coaches writing at the college level and is working on two children's picture books as well as many public history projects that celebrate female trailblazers.

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