Born in New York City, she was the first child to Roosevelt Naylor and Alberta McAlpin. As Naylor grew up, her father was a transit worker and her mother was a telephone operator. When Naylor was young, her mother encouraged her to read and keep a journal. Even though her mother barely had any education, she loved to read and often worked overtime in the fields as a sharecropper to produce enough money to join a book club.

In 1963 she moved to Queens with her family. Five years later Naylor followed in her mother's footsteps and became a Jehovah's Witness, but she left seven years later as ”things weren't getting better, but worse.”

Education

Naylor earned her bachelor’s degree in English at Brooklyn College. Afterward, she attended Yale University in order to obtain her master’s degree in Afro—American Studies.

Naylor's novel The Women of Brewster Place was first published in 1982. It was adapted into a 1989 film of the same name by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions.

During her career as a professor, she taught writing and literature at several universities. She has taught at George Washington University, New York University, Boston University, and Cornell University.