Portrait of Bell hooks

Birthday profile

Bell hooks

bell hooks, American author and activist (died 2021)

Born
September 25, 1952
Died
December 15, 2021
Zodiac sign
Libra
Birth year
1952

About Bell hooks

Gloria Jean Watkins, better known by her pen name bell hooks, was an American author, theorist, educator, and social critic who was a Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College. She was best known for her writings on race, feminism, and social class. Her work explored the intersections of race, capitalism, and gender, and what she described as their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and class domination. Her work served as foundational to the modern idea of intersectionality. She published numerous scholarly articles and nearly 40 books, in styles ranging from essays and poetry to children's literature, with a body of work that addressed love, gender, art, history, sexuality, and mass media. In 2014, hooks also founded the bell hooks Institute at Berea College. Truth's "Ain't I a Woman?" inspired hooks's first major book. During her three years there, Golemics, a Los Angeles publisher, released her first published work, a chapbook of poems titled And There We Wept (1978), written under the name "bell hooks".

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Bell hooks timeline

  1. During her three years there, Golemics, a Los Angeles publisher, released her first published work, a chapbook of poems titled And There We Wept (1978), written under the name "bell hooks".
  2. In 2014, hooks also founded the bell hooks Institute at Berea College.

The world when Bell hooks was born

Bell hooks was born in 1952. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1952

  • #1 song"You Belong to Me" – Jo Stafford
  • Top movieThe Greatest Show on Earth
  • Top TV showI Love Lucy
  • Best-selling bookThe Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentRocky Marciano becomes heavyweight champion
  • Top headlineDwight Eisenhower elected president
  • Technology milestoneFirst hydrogen bomb tested
  • Defining fadMr. Potato Head
  • Notable inventionMr. Potato Head (first toy advertised on TV)
  • World population2.63 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderHarry S. Truman
  • Sports championNew York Yankees (World Series)
  • Also wonMinneapolis Lakers (NBA)
  • U.S. population156.4M

1952 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Bell hooks's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19522026
Gas$0.27$3.45/gal
Average home$9,100$435,000
Average income$5,700$67,500
Minimum wage$0.75$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.60$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population156.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.