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while also taking part in an internship--supported by a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities--at the Field Museum in Chicago. That year the American Forum for International Study awarded Burroughs a travel grant to Africa. Although she stayed primarily in Ghana, she did visit other West African countries. One year later, Burroughs returned to Ghana to attend the American Forum of International Study program at the University of Ghana. These trips to Africa provided the inspiration for Africa, My Africa, Burroughs' second volume of poetry. Charles Gordon Burroughs, the poet's husband, wrote in the book's foreword that Burroughs "tells us about Africa with love and concern for people and humanity without claiming to grasp and understand the blackness of our ancestral home."

Burroughs believes the poet to be an essential force in changing the world. In the Forerunners: Black Poets in America, a book that acknowledges the contributions made by earlier black poets, Burroughs wrote , "Black poets ... have played their significant roles by using their pens as their weapons.... If you would ... thwart progressive change, silence for poets, for if left to their own devices they will prepare the ground for and help to usher in the new order."

Indeed, Burroughs has spect her life preserving black culture for all people but particularly for children through her art and her devotion to the DuSable Museum. She then created the Burroughs Group, an agency that provides consultation and support shrives to the art community. She has fostered an appreciation of African heritage in those whose lives she has touched. Testified Audrey Edwards in Black Enterprise, "Dr. Margaret Burroughs knows that children need heroes, role models, and elders who set examples and give definition to history."

Awards

Selected Awards: Young Women's Christian Association leadership award, 1973, for excellence in art; Excellence in Art Award, National Association of Negro Museums, 1982; Progressive Black Woman's Award, Enverite Charity Club, 1988; Woman's Caucus for Art Award, Houston Museum of Fine Art, 1988.

Works

Writings
• (Under name Margaret Taylor) Jasper, the Drummin' Boy (self-illustrated), Viking 1947, revised edition. under name Margaret Taylor Burroughs, illustrated be Ted Lewin, Follett, 1970.
• (Compiler, under name Margaret Taylor) Did You Feed My Cow?: Rhymes and Games From City Streets and Country Lanes, illustrated by Paul Galdone, Crowell, 1956, revised edition under name Margaret Taylor Burroughs, illustrated by Joe E. De Valasco, Follett, 1969.
• (Contributor, under name Margaret Taylor) Celebrating Negro History and Brotherhood: A Folio of Prints by Chicago Artists, Seven Arts Workshop, 1956.
• Whip Me Whoop Me Pudding and Other Stories of Riley