MacArthur fellowships awarded to six blacks - John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowships go to Stanley Crouch, Ernest Gaines, Sokoni Karanja, Aaron Shirley, John E. Wideman, and Marion Williams - Brief Article

Jet, July 5, 1993

Six Blacks are among the 31 recipients of fellowships recently awarded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The foundation provides fellowships to "exceptionally talented and promising individuals who have given evidence of originality, dedication to creative pursuits and capacity for self-direction." The recipients may use the money any way they wish.

Black who will receive awards, and the amount they will receive, are: Stanley Crouch, critic and essayist $296,000; Ernest J. Gaines, writer and professor at the University of Southwest Louisiana, $365,000; Sokoni Karanja, founder of the Centers for New Horizons in Chicago, $320,000; Dr. Aaron Shirley, physician and medical director of the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center in Jackson, Miss., $355,000; John Edgar Wideman, novelist and professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, $315,000; and Marion Williams, a gospel singer, $374,000.