William H. Armstrong

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William Howard Armstrong (September 14, 1914 – April 11, 1999) was an African-American author and educator. His best-known work is Sounder, which won the Newbery Medal in [[1970] William H. Armstrong was born in 1914 in Lexington, Virginia. He grew up and worked on a farm, and graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in 1936. Later he attained a graduate degree from the University of Virginia.

He taught ninth grade at the Kent School in Connecticut for fifty-two years. He wrote over a dozen adult and children's books, including Studying is Hard Work in 1956 and Sounder in 1969.

He won the National School Bell award in 1963, and was awarded the Doctor of Letters Degree from Hampden-Sydney College in 1986.