 She described herself as "a people's sculptor" and created many pieces of public art, often portraits of prominent African-American figures like Duke Ellington, Mary McLeod Bethune and Booker T. Washington.In 1979, she was awarded the Women's Caucus for Art Lifetime Achievement Award

Selma Burke was born on December 31, 1900, in Mooresville, North Carolina, the seventh of 10 children of Reverend Neil and Mary Elizabeth Colfield Burke.Her father was an AME Church Minister who worked on the railroads for additional income.