Bonner, Marita Odette

(1898-1971)

   The African American writer was born in Boston, where she attended public schools. She studied English and the classics at Radcliffe College, graduating in 1922. Moving to Washington, D.C., in 1924 to teach at Armstrong Colored High School, she participated in salons at the home of Georgia Douglas Johnson. Her plays were not produced during her lifetime, but three were published in Crisis or Opportunity magazine. The Purple Flower (1928) uses expressionist techniques to convey the call of blood in response to long repression. She married William Almy Occomy in 1930.