By Megan Yarusso
For author Clifton Taulbert (ΦBK, University of Tulsa), writing was never a solitary occupation. Rather, his 30+ year career as a writer has been a case study in the ways storytelling can connect people across time and space. Raised in the small Mississippi town of Glen Allan at a time when segregation was still legally enforced, Taulbert’s work explores the stories of the community that shaped him, touching on themes of racial identity, family, education, entrepreneurship, and more. As of 2025, Taulbert has authored over ten books, including memoirs, children’s books, and educational nonfiction.
Taulbert credits his introduction to the power of words to his great-aunt Elna Boose, who raised him for most of his childhood. Described as a consummate letter writer, Taulbert’s great-aunt would read her correspondence aloud to her young nephew and then give him mail to deliver to the post office. “I took her words and sent them across the country to her family and friends that she kept in touch with,” Taulbert recalls. “I realized that for all of the family coming back to visit, her house would always be the first house they would stop in town. They always went to her house because she was the only one that wrote everybody . . . through that I embraced writing, and what writing can do for individuals when they’re miles apart.”
Even after saying goodbye to Glen Allan, Taulbert continued to use writing as a form of connection. During his time serving in the Air Force, Taulbert would write about his upbringing as a way of bridging the distance between him and his family: “I started writing primarily short stories, but not to be published. I started writing short stories so that my family would know just how much I love them. I wanted them to know that they were my life.”
However, the more Taulbert shared his writing with others, the more he was encouraged to pursue publication. His debut book, Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored, was first published in 1989 and chronicles daily life in the community that shaped him. Initially, Taulbert didn’t expect the book to find widespread acclaim, with its initial release consisting of only 5,000 copies. To the author’s surprise, the stories he told about the day-to-day experiences of a Black community in the American South resonated across the country with readers who recognized themselves in his writing. “What I had not realized was that in writing those stories from that perspective, I was not only writing my story—I was writing the story of any person who looked like me who lived in a southern part of America,” Taulbert explained. “This was their story as well.”
The success of Once Upon a Time When We Were Colored encouraged Taulbert to continue sharing his writing, finding opportunities for connection and education in the memories of the people who impacted him the most. In Who Owns the Ice House? Eight Life Lessons From an Unlikely Entrepreneur, Taulbert tells the story of his Uncle Clee, an important figure from his childhood. As the owner of the only ice house in Glen Allan, Uncle Clee occupied a unique position in a heavily segregated society. “If you needed ice, everybody—Jewish people, Chinese people, white people, Black people, Hispanic people—would all go to him for ice,” Taulbert said. He described Uncle Clee as “a firm believer in education,” whose status as a business owner made him a role model in his community: “He took pride in his ownership. He would take the young boys under his wing and help them to understand they didn’t have to pick cotton for the rest of their lives.”
One of Taulbert’s most recent books, The Invitation: A Memoir of Hope Amidst Lessons of Race and Place, takes readers out of Mississippi and to a plantation house in Allendale, South Carolina. In The Invitation, Taulbert recalls how he was unexpectedly invited to dinner by the matriarch of Roselawn Plantation, sparking a series of encounters between the two. Taulbert’s account of his time in Allendale challenges readers to grapple with the legacy of slavery in the United States and reflect on how stories of the past shape the places of the present. “The book became my conversation of hope,” Taulbert said of The Invitation, “as I shared the story of the unexpected friendship that developed between the great-great-grandson of an enslaved family and the granddaughter of a slave-holding family.” Taulbert remarked that the book was one of his proudest accomplishments.
Looking back on his career, Taulbert has never forgotten how the love and support of his family nourished his talents in the face of systemic injustice. He recalls one pivotal moment from his childhood when his great-aunt encouraged his love of learning despite the barriers caused by racial discrimination: “I wanted to go to the library, and I didn’t understand that I couldn’t go, because the library was still segregated… Instead of her getting mad or angry, my great-aunt sat in her rocking chair, and she began to write letters to her son, who had just gotten through college. She wrote him a letter that said, ‘have the people at the college send me all of their old books.’ Several colleges sent her books.” Taulbert’s great-aunt championed his education even when Taulbert himself felt unsure of his capabilities, telling him that “if they can write it, you can read it!” Today, Taulbert sees his accomplishments as an author as “letters to friends and family” in the spirit of his great-aunt.
True to his role as chronicler of personal histories, Taulbert sees his membership in ΦBK as yet another way of staying engaged with the past while being part of the present. “The greatest part of it to me is to be part of something with longevity and impact,” Taulbert said, and went on to note that his niece had recently also been inducted into ΦBK, making both of their stories part of ΦBK’s history. “The stories are important in all of our lives,” Taulbert concluded. “To be able to tell our stories, so that other people are encouraged to tell theirs.”
Megan Yarusso is a first-year graduate student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign currently enrolled in the Master of Urban and Regional Planning Program. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa at her undergraduate institution, Augustana College, in May of 2025. Augustana College is home to the Zeta of Illinois chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.