![]() ![]() As a former slave, once forbidden to learn reading and writing, she finally met her lifelong goal and proudly read from the Bible given to her as a teen by a woman who had told her, “Your civil rights are in these pages.” Department of Education, Mary - who lived through 26 presidents, outlived her entire family, and eventually became a Chattanooga icon - “studied the alphabet until her eyes watered” at well past the age of 100. ![]() Author Rita Lorraine Hubbard brings Mary’s inspiring story to young readers in her new picture book biography, The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read.ĭubbed “the nation’s oldest student” by the U.S. “You’re never too old to learn,” she famously remarked. ![]() Born into slavery in Alabama in the mid-19th century, Mary Walker was freed at the age of 15, moved to Chattanooga in 1917, and learned to read at the extraordinary age of 116. ![]()
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