Clifton Taulbert

Clifton Taulbert (born February 19, 1945), is an American author and speaker. He is best known for his books Once Upon a Time When I Was Colored and Eight Habits of the Heart: Embracing the Values that Build Strong Communities.

Biography

Taulbert was born in Glen Allan, Mississippi, a small town in the Mississippi Delta, in 1945. His mother was very young and could not afford to take care of him alone, so he was raised by his extended family. He graduated from O'Bannon High School in Greenville, Mississippi in 1963 and went on to get a bachelor's degree from Oral Roberts University and a graduate degree from Southern Methodist University. He also spent a few years in the United States Air Force, where he rose to the rank of sergeant.

He currently resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a professor at Oral Roberts University.

Awards and nominations

• Pulitzer Prize nomination for The Last Train North (1992)
• NAACP Image Award for Literature (1996)
• Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Nonfiction (1993)
• TIME Magazine Outstanding Black Entrepreneur

Works

• Nonfiction
  • Once Upon a Time When I Was Colored (1989)
  • The Last Train North (1992)
  • Watching Our Crops Come In (1997)
  • Eight Habits of the Heart: Embracing the Timeless Values That Build Strong Communities (1997)
  • The Journey Home: A Father’s Gift to His Son (2002)

• Children's Books
  • Little Cliff and the Porch People (1999)
  • Little Cliff and the First Day of School (2001)
  • Little Cliff and the Cold Place (2002)