Williams (for whom she was named) and Eloise Williams, a psychiatric social worker and educator. Shange, the oldest of four children, was provided with material comfort and intellectual stimulation early in life. When Shange was eight years old her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where they lived for five years. Although St. Louis offered Shange the things that she liked best, such as opera, music, dance, literature, and art, she experienced much disappointment as she struggled against rejection and abuse in the then-segregated city. She remembers being bused to a German-American school, where blatant racism abounded, as part of enforcement of the Brown versus the Board of Education decision. Shange, left with what appeared to be no alternatives, adjusted and even formed tenacious bonds to St. Louis. She also had a rich intellectual and family life to fall back on. Always an avid reader, Shange's earliest favorite authors were Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Simone de Beauvoir, and Jean Genet. Along with her exposure to literary giants, Shange also came in contact with such musicians and singers as Dizzy Gillespie, Chuck Berry, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Josephine Baker, all of whom were friends of her parents.
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