Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her book Annie Allen on May 1, 1950, making her the first African-American to receive such an honor.

Brooks later went on to receive numerous other awards for her work including, a National Medal of the Arts in 1995 and she was named Poet Laureate of Illinois in 1968 and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1985.

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