About the Author Donley R. Phillips, a writer-poet, was born December 21, 1935, in Tyler, Texas. In 1945, near the end of World War II, Phillips lived in San Antonio, Texas. He attended segregated public schools: elementary school, Frederick Douglas Junior High School, and Phyllis Wheatley High School. In the early fifties, Phillips was elected president of the NAACP Youth Council. Along with Thurgood Marshall and Harry Burns of the NAACP, he actively participated to end public school segregation in San Antonio and the South. In 1953, Phillips was awarded a scholarship to tour Europe in a student exchange program, sponsored by the NAACP. Upon his return to the USA, he received a Ford Foundation Scholarship to attend Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1955, Phillips moved to Los Angeles, California. He continued his involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, with the NAACP and Martin Luther King Jr. During the sixties, he participated in the San Francisco marches. He also was a protester at the anti-Vietnam War rallies together with William McNeil during the late sixties and early seventies in southern California. Phillips presently resides in Los Angeles and is a Beverly Hills Optimist Club International member (promotes positive development of youth).
