Pitt grad, novelist Bebe Campbell dies

In 1971, Bebe Moore Campbell was a campus celebrity. In 2006, she was a national celebrity. … In 1971, Bebe Moore Campbell was a campus celebrity. In 2006, she was a national celebrity.

Campbell, who graduated from Pitt with a bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1972, became known to the literary world for her writings about relationships – most notably ones of race, of love and of family. In 2005, she was named a Pitt trustee.

Campbell died on Monday at her home in Los Angeles because of complications from brain cancer.

“She was a person who was small in stature but she was very, very big in terms of her ideas and her commitment to social justice and to others,” said Jack Daniel, a Pitt communications professor who taught Campbell in a course in African-American rhetoric.

He remembers Campbell not only for her dedication to her education, but for her original thought and personal interest in her studies. One term paper in particular sticks out in his mind.

“She discussed cutting her long, straight hair and changing it into an Afro style and the psychological issues that she as an African-American woman had to deal with,” he said. “She talked about redefining what constitutes beautiful hair.”

The paper was eventually published in the black studies department (now Pitt’s Africana studies department) journal, “Black Lines.”

As a student at Pitt, Campbell was an active member of Pitt’s Black Action Society, leading protests to promote diversity and create an Africana studies department. She was also involved in the development of a tutoring program for minorities recruited to Pitt.

“She came to Pitt because we had just started a diversity program to get more African-American students into the University, but what we received was not simply an African-American female,” Daniel said. “Through our commitment to diversity, we received a literary giant who just happened to be African-American and female.”

After graduating from Pitt, Campbell taught for five years throughout the country before deciding to commit to her writing career.

Four of the books she authored have been New York Times bestsellers. She has written racially charged novels, which probe deep into the minds of different races, as well as novels focusing on mental disorders and love affairs.

“In her writings, Bebe helped us to understand race relations from both sides of the fence, so to speak,” Daniel said. “She is an excellent demonstration of the true meaning of diversity.”

“Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine,” based on the story of Emmett Till, was one of her best known novels. Her most recent book, “72-Hour Hold,” written about bipolar disorder, was published in 2005.

Campbell also wrote children’s books, plays and contributed to several magazines and other publications.

Campbell’s literary accomplishments are a testament to what Pitt students are capable of, Faith Adiele, an assistant professor in Pitt’s English department, said.

“If Pitt can lay claim to her, Pitt can reach outside of its gates,” she said. “She gives a good example of what students can do with their lives.”

Adiele met Campbell in 2003 when she visited Pitt for an event hosted by the Black Action Society.

“[Campbell] took time to speak with every single person,” she said. “She was clearly interested in mentoring people and connecting with them.”

Her personality and intentions were not only conducive to encouraging Pitt students to follow in her footsteps, but Campbell also provided an accessible role model for a college student who is considering what her future holds.

“She was very willing to share her past and made it clear that she didn’t want to be on a pedestal,” Adiele said. “She told the audience that if you have desire and if you work on your craft and if you’re diligent, you can do it.”

And even for students who did not see Campbell speak in 2003, Daniel hopes that her memory will provide an example for Pitt students to come.

“There are a lot of young people who don’t believe the American mythology applies to them,” he said. “They don’t believe that they can be participants in Horatio Alger’s ideas and go from rags to riches.”

But students can, and Bebe Moore Campbell’s legacy is proof.

“If you don’t ever see anyone that looks like a nuclear physicist, you don’t believe you can become one,” Daniel said. “Bebe serves as a role model of what can happen at the University of Pittsburgh.”