1. Alice Walker
Race and Gender highlighted in
writings, influenced by her activism
By Gayle Fergusson
Troy University

2.  Born February 9, 1944,
American author, poet and
activist Alice Malsenior Walker
wrote both fiction and essays
about race and gender.
 As a student of Spellman College
in the 1960s, Walker got a chance to
meet Martin Luther King III and credits
him for her choice to be an activist.
 Won Pulitzer Prize and National Book
Award for Fiction for “The Color Purple”,
O. Henry award for “Kindred Spirits”.

3.  Slavery
 Poverty
 Abuse
 Gender
“Part of the creation of the color purple is just to be more intimate
with my ancestors in a time when I didn’t exist.” Walker

4. Women’s struggle (images the acclaimed movie by St
Spielberg)
“Part of the creation of the color purple is just to be more

5.  “In the early 1960s, the fundamental prize
sought by the civil rights movement was
something that African Americans had never
known: full legal equality.” (JFK in History)

6. 1960 Women’s Liberation Movement

7.  Poverty
 Racism
 Gender
“Written during the heyday of the Black Power movement, when
African Americans were trying to gain racial equality and called
for self determination and racial dignity.“ (Johannes)

9.  Hoffman, Melody K. The Color Purple. Jet 119.6 14 Feb 2011: 42.
Johnson Pub. Co. 3 Dec 2012.
 "Civil Rights Movement." JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
AND MUSEUM. n. page. Web. 6 Dec. 2012.
<http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Civil-Rights-
Movement.asp&xgt;>
 N. Sink, . "1960's - 1980's Women's Liberation Movement ." (2008):
n. page. Web. 5 Dec. 2012.
<http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his135/Events/womenslli
beration/womensliberation.htm>
 Alice Walker: Everyday Use, Uncommon Art “Films Media Group”
(2003) Web. 5 Dec. 2012
http://ffh.films.com/id/5979/Alice_Walker_Everyday_Use_Unco
mmon_Art.htm
 Johannes Timpe, 2005, Alice Walker - Everyday Use, München,
GRIN Verlag GmbH,
<http://www.hausarbeiten.de/faecher/vorschau/109496.html