Baltimore riots; ranking member Elijah E. Cummings on CNN
John Legend may seem, at first, an unlikely activist. For a decade now, his songs have tended to come more from the heart. But since the killings of Eric Garner on Staten Island and Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO., Legend has emerged as one of the more outspoken voices in pop music. After the grand jury decision in the Garner case, Mr. Legend joined the chorus of disbelief on Twitter. “I am stunned by the failure to indict Eric Garner’s killer,” he wrote to his more than six million followers. Featuring the rapper Common, who acts in the film Selma, Legend and Common’s “Glory” is drumless and gospel-tinged. The message is pointed: “One day, when the glory comes, it will be ours….One day, when the war is won, we will be sure.” The verses invoke the recent unrest about the racial injustice of law enforcement and criminal justice systems in the context of the 1960’s civil rights movement. “One son died, his spirit is revisiting us,” Common raps. “Resistance is us/That’s why Rosa sat on the bus/That’s why we walk through Ferguson with our hands up.” Mr. Legend said he and Common wrote the lyrics in October 2014, keeping in mind, both the historical achievements “Selma” celebrates and the current national mood. Glory won a Golden Globe in the best original song category and a 2015 Oscar. Until now, for a mainstream R & B singer like Legend, Professor Neal, a professor of African American studies at Duke University, added, “…there wasn’t a movement out there that could push him to rethink his music.” (Mr. Legend’s 2010 album with the Roots, “Wake Up!,” featured covers of politically charged soul songs, but from an earlier era. Legend’s racial justice contributions have not just been artistic. With his wife, the supermodel Chrissy Teigen, he donated more than $10,000 to feed protesters in New York one Sunday. “I look at these young people who are out marching and some have been doing it for weeks and months now,” he said. “They need resources, they need supplies.” For an otherwise wholly uncontroversial musician, a political stance carries risks. “I certainly catch some flak for it,” he said. On Twitter, “People tell me to shut up and sing.” “If you just discovered me through ‘All of Me,’ ” he said, citing his most successful single, which hit No. 1 on the Billboard in 2014, “maybe you’re surprised. But I feel like I have to speak out when I believe in something. I know what I’m talking about.” Legend, who was 16 when he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, focused on African-American literature during his undergraduate education.
A version of this article appears in print on December 12, 2014, on page C2 of the New York edition with the headline: A Stranger to Controversy, Balladeer Gets Political After Police Killings.
A version of this article appears in print on December 12, 2014, on page C2 of the New York edition with the headline: A Stranger to Controversy, Balladeer Gets Political After Police Killings.
August Wilson was an African-American playwright who won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for his play Fences, and earned a second Pulitzer Prize for The Piano Lesson. Primarily self-educated, he quit school at age 15 after being accused of having plagiarized a paper. He later joined the Black Arts movement in the late 1960's, became the co-founder and director of Black Horizons Theater in Pittsburgh (1968), and published poetry in such journals as Black World (1971) and Black Lines (1972). Wilson carved his signature on American theater by capturing the changing texture of black life in America through his ten plays, each covering a different decade of the twentieth century.Wilson received numerous honors during his career, including seven New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for best play. He also held Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships. Shortly after his death, the Virginia Theater on Broadway was renamed in his honor.
Reference: August Wilson. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/644638/August-Wilson; August Wilson. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 03:17, Feb 26, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/august-wilson-9533583.
Reference: August Wilson. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/644638/August-Wilson; August Wilson. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 03:17, Feb 26, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/august-wilson-9533583.
Dr. Maya Angelou was a celebrated poet, memoirist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. She had a broad career as a singer, dancer, actress, composer, and Hollywood's first female black director, but is most famous as a writer, editor, essayist, playwright, and poet. As a civil rights activist, Dr. Angelou worked for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. She met Malcolm X in 1964 and helped him build his Organization of African American Unity. After Malcolm X was assassinated and the organization dissolved, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. asked Dr. Angelou to serve as Northern Coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. King’s assassination, falling on her birthday in 1968, left her devastated. She was also an educator and served as the Reynolds professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University for more than 25 years. She served on two presidential committees, for Gerald Ford in 1975 and for Jimmy Carter in 1977. In 2000, Angelou was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton. In 2010, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the U.S., by President Barack Obama. Dr. Angelou was widely recognized as a international ambassador for good will crossing lines of race and culture and was awarded over 50 honorary degrees. Dr. Maya Angelou was one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time.
Reference: Maya angelou. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/maya-angelou
Reference: Maya angelou. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/maya-angelou
Politician and U.S. congressman Keith Ellison broke new ground as the first black Muslim elected to serve in the United States Congress. Ellison is an accomplished civil rights, employment, and criminal defense attorney with a long record of community and civic engagement. Ellison’s guiding philosophy is based on “generosity and inclusion” and his priorities in Congress are building prosperity for working families, promoting peace, pursuing environmental sustainability, and advancing civil and human rights. Before being elected to Congress, Ellison was a noted community activist and ran a thriving civil rights, employment, and criminal defense law practice in Minneapolis. As a state representative, he served on several committees, including the Local Government and Metropolitan Affairs and supported legislation on education and legal issues. In 2006, he moved into the national political arena, becoming the first black Muslim elected to serve in the U.S. Congress. He is committed to the cause of justice and creating an inclusive and fair society and has staunchly supported efforts to protect voting rights, to advance equal rights for women, and to increase healthcare access. Ellison has shown his support for women and families, cosponsoring bills that provide paid family leave including the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 that strongly supports a woman’s right to make her own reproductive decisions. In addition, Ellison voted to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy that barred openly gay men and women from serving in the U.S. armed forces.
Reference: Keith's biography. Retrieved from http://ellison.house.gov/about/keiths-biography
Reference: Keith's biography. Retrieved from http://ellison.house.gov/about/keiths-biography
Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize- and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved. She was the eighth woman and first black woman to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her critically acclaimed novel, Beloved, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The central theme of Morrison’s novels is the black American experience; in an unjust society her characters struggle to find themselves and their cultural identity. Her use of fantasy, her sinuous poetic style, and her rich interweaving of the mythic gave her stories great strength and texture. She has also held positions as an editor and professor. In 1987, Toni Morrison was named the Robert F. Goheen Professor in the Council of Humanities at Princeton University. She became the first black woman writer to hold a named chair at an Ivy League University. In 2010 Morrison was made an officer of the French Legion of Honor. Two years later she was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Reference: Toni Morrison. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/393004/Toni-Morrison
Reference: Toni Morrison. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/393004/Toni-Morrison
.Oprah Winfrey is best known for hosting her own internationally popular talk show from 1986 to 2011. She is also an actress, philanthropist, publisher, producer and entrepreneur. In 2005, Business Week named her the greatest Black philanthropist in American history. Oprah's Angel Network has raised more than $51,000,000 for charitable programs, including girls' education in South Africa and relief to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. Winfrey is a dedicated activist for children's rights; in 1994, President Clinton signed a bill into law that Winfrey had proposed to Congress, creating a nationwide database of convicted child abusers. She founded the Family for Better Lives foundation and also contributes to her alma mater, Tennessee State University. In September 2002, Oprah was named the first recipient of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' Bob Hope Humanitarian Award. In November 2013, Winfrey received the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Barack Obama gave her this award for her contributions to her country.
Reference: Oprah Winfrey. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 03:43, Feb 26, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/oprah-winfrey-9534419.
Reference: Oprah Winfrey. (2015). The Biography.com website. Retrieved 03:43, Feb 26, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/oprah-winfrey-9534419.
Dr. Thomas A. Parham is Vice Chancellor, Student Affairs at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Parham is a psychologist. He is committed to advancement in the areas of social advocacy, community upliftment, and youth empowerment. In 1986, he was appointed to the City of Irvine’s Human Relations Committee. and after being elected chair, he helped draft and pass the city’s first human rights ordinance. In the early ’90s, he helped charter the Orange County chapter of the 100 Black Men of America, 100 BMOC. As the first chair of their education committee, he helped to develop the 100 BMOC's signature Passport to the Future program and is the architect of their Rites of Passage component. He was also the 5th president of the 100 BMOC; his efforts included initiating an Institutional Report Card initiative to evaluate the quality of the educational experience for African American youth in Orange County schools and helping to recognize and honor citizens of all colors who make a difference in the African American community by co-chairing the 100's award committee for its annual gala. He has also served as national chair of education for the 100 Black Men of America. Dr. Parham is a past president of the National Association of Black Psychologists. He is also a fellow of both the American Counseling Association and the American Psychological Association. He is past president of the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development. He served on the editorial board for the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development and the Journal of Counseling and Development as well. He authored The psychology of Blacks: An African-centered perspective.
Reference: About the vice chancellor. (2015). Retrieved from http://studentaffairs.uci.edu/bio.php
Reference: About the vice chancellor. (2015). Retrieved from http://studentaffairs.uci.edu/bio.php
Melissa Harris-Perry is an American writer, professor, television host, and political commentator with a focus on African-American politics. She is also a Presidential Endowed Professor of Political Science at Wake Forest University, and founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Project on Gender, Race, and Politics in the South. She previously served on the faculties of Tulane University, the University of Chicago and Princeton University. Harris-Perry is author of Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America (Yale, 2011), which argues that persistent harmful stereotypes, invisible to many but painfully familiar to black women, profoundly shape black women's politics, contribute to policies that treat them unfairly, and make it difficult for black women to assert their rights in the political arena. Harris-Perry is a columnist for The Nation magazine, where she writes a monthly column also titled Sister Citizen. In addition to hosting her own show on MSNBC, she provides expert commentary on U.S. elections, racial issues, religious questions, and gender concerns for a variety of other media outlets. Her academic research is inspired by a desire to investigate the challenges facing contemporary black Americans and to better understand the multiple, creative ways that African Americans respond to these challenges. Her work is published in scholarly journals and edited volumes and her interests include the study of African American political thought, black religious ideas and practice, and social psychology. Professor Harris-Perry's creative and dynamic teaching is also motivated by the practical political and racial issues of our time.
Reference: Melissa harris-perry. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/melissa-harris-perry-biography
Reference: Melissa harris-perry. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.com/melissa-harris-perry/melissa-harris-perry-biography
Whoopi Goldberg is a Grammy Award-winning comedian, actress, television host and human rights advocate. In 1940 she was awarded an Oscar for best supporting actress for her role in Gone with the Wind and at that time was only the second African American actress to win an Oscar for acting. In 1994, Goldberg became the first African American woman ever to host the Academy Awards. She proved to be such a popular hostess that she was invited back to host the Awards again in 1996, 1999 and 2002. Despite the demands of her high profile career, Goldberg also found time to carry out considerable fundraising work for charity. In 1987, she co-founded and hosted HBO’s Comic Relief in the United States to raise funds for the homeless in America. The show was a massive success, so much so that it became an annual media institution. Goldberg is a vigorous advocate for children, human rights, education, substance abuse, and in the fight against HIV/AIDS and was appointed UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in September 2003. She is also an outspoken advocate of gay rights, and received the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Vanguard Award in 1999 in recognition of her stalwart efforts to support the gay rights movement. Goldberg holds a Ph.D. in literature from New York University.
Reference: "Goldberg, Whoopi." Contemporary Black Biography. 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2015 from Encyclopedia.com:http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3273700025.html
Reference: "Goldberg, Whoopi." Contemporary Black Biography. 2009. Retrieved March 19, 2015 from Encyclopedia.com:http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3273700025.html
Sidney Poitier is an actor, director and producer. Poitier made his feature film debut in 1950 in No Way Out. He appeared in the leading role as a young doctor called upon to treat a bigoted patient in a town inflamed with racial hatred. For decades, American films had consigned black actors to the roles of servants or entertainers, often portrayed in the most demeaning light. Poitier's powerful and dignified performance was a revelation to American audiences, and created a sensation in the African American community. The film's depiction of interracial violence frightened many theater owners. It was briefly banned in Chicago and was never shown at all in most Southern cities. Poitier felt called to balance his need for artistic fulfillment with his sense of responsibility as the most prominent African American in the film industry. While leveraging his fame and resources to promote social justice movements not only in the United States, but in South Africa and his native Bahamas, he chose his film roles carefully. Poitier won an Oscar as Best Actor, marking the first Oscar win by an African American actor for the 1963 film, Lilies of the Field. In Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, he played a black man engaged to a white woman in this groundbreaking look at interracial marriage. Poitier has received many awards and honors for both his tremendous body of work in film and his humanitarian efforts. Poitier, who has a dual American-Bahamian citizenship, was appointed as the Bahamian ambassador to Japan. In 2002 he received an honorary Oscar for a career that signaled a turning point for African Americans in film. He was presented with the NAACP’s Hall of Fame Award for his constant depiction of positive screen images. He was also honored by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) with a lifetime achievement award. In 2009, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. Poitier was also feted by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2011, earning the organization's Chaplin Lifetime Achievement Award.
Reference: Glickman, Simon; Henderson, Ashyia. "Poitier, Sidney 1927–." Contemporary Black Biography. 2003. Retrieved March 19, 2015 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2873800055.html
Reference: Glickman, Simon; Henderson, Ashyia. "Poitier, Sidney 1927–." Contemporary Black Biography. 2003. Retrieved March 19, 2015 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-2873800055.html
John Lewis was born in Troy, Alabama in 1940. In 1961 he received a B.A. from American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1967 he received an additional B.A. from Fisk University located in Nashville, Tennessee. Lewis emerged as a civil rights leader after his participation in the Nashville sit-in movement in 1960 and the Freedom Rides the following year. In 1963, Lewis helped plan the March on Washington and was one of the keynote speakers. Lewis also served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from 1963 to 1966. Lewis became nationally known after Alabama State Troopers and other police attacked him and 500 other protesters as they attempted to cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge during the 1965 Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March. In 1966 Lewis left SNCC as it embraced a “black power” ideology, and started working with community organizations in Atlanta. Later that year he was named director of community affairs for the National Consumer Co-op Bank in Atlanta. In 1981, Lewis was elected to the Atlanta City Council, a position which helped him gain crucial experience and exposure for his next congressional race. Lewis ran for the vacant 5th District Congressional Seat, winning the Democratic primary and then the general election. John Lewis was only the second African American since Reconstruction to represent the state of Georgia in Congress. He has been reelected nine times with only token opposition. Lewis rose in power among Congressional Democrats. Since 1991 he has been senior chief deputy whip. He is also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. Lewis has been a strong pro-choice supporter and has called for federal funding of stem cell research. Lewis recently authored two comic books entitled March, and March: Book Two that highlight civil rights heroism.
Reference: Waggoner, Cassandra, "Lewis, John R. (1940- ). Retrieved March 30, 2015 from Blackpast.org: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/lewis-john-r-1940
Reference: Waggoner, Cassandra, "Lewis, John R. (1940- ). Retrieved March 30, 2015 from Blackpast.org: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/lewis-john-r-1940
Andrew Jackson Young Jr. is an American Civil rights activist and politician. He was the mayor of Atlanta and US Ambassador to the United Nations under President Jimmy Carter. In 1955, he enrolled in the Hartford Theological Seminary, an interdenominational theological college in Connecticut. His studies were strongly influenced by the teachings of non-violent resistance of Mahatma Gandhi. After graduating, Young became the minister of the United Church of Christ, a parish in Marion, Alabama. There, he encouraged African Americans to register to vote in Alabama and became a friend and an ally of Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1957, he moved to New York City, where he worked for the National Council of Churches. During the Civil Rights Movement, he decided to move to Atlanta, Georgia. There, he fought for the introduction of suffrage for African Americans. In 1964, he became the Executive Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and organized many nonviolent protests. In 1972, Young was elected the first African American Member of Parliament from Georgia in the House of Representatives since the Reconstruction. He was re-elected in 1974 and 1976. In 1976, President Jimmy Carter appointed him the US ambassador to the United Nations. However, due to a secret meeting with the Palestine Liberation Organization’s representative Zehdi Terzi, Young had to withdraw from office in 1979. In 1981, Jimmy Carter awarded Young the Medal of Freedom award. The same year, Young was elected mayor of Atlanta and in 1985 confirmed in office. In 1990, he was defeated in the Democratic primaries by Zell Miller for the Governorship of Georgia.
Reference: Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (2004). Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved April 22, 2015 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404707017.html
Reference: Andrew Jackson Young Jr. (2004). Encyclopedia of World Biography. Retrieved April 22, 2015 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3404707017.html
Dr. Cornel West is a philosopher, scholar of African American studies, and political activist. Dr. West received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University and was the first African American to graduate from Princeton with a Ph.D in philosophy. He has written about how race, gender, and class figure in American society and how individuals act according to their ascribed statuses. His most influential works are Race Matters (1994) and Democracy Matters (2004). His thinking draws upon Christianity, the black church, Marxism, neopragmatism, and transcendentalism. He taught at Harvard in 2001 before leaving the school over an ideological dispute with the University’s president, Sommers. He was taught African American Studies at Princeton until 2011, then become Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. He has also spent time teaching at the University of Paris. Additionally, Dr. West appears regularly on news networks as a commentator and has contributed to several spoken word and hip hop albums. West was arrested on October 13, 2014, while protesting against the shooting of Michael Brown.
Reference: Cornel West. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved April 21, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_West
Reference: Cornel West. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved April 21, 2015 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_West
Tavis Smiley is an American talk show host, author, liberal political commentator, and advocate. Smiley was born in Gulfport, Mississippi. He was brought up in Indiana with several step-siblings in poverty and in a strongly Christian home. He attended Indiana University and worked at several jobs to pay for tuition. He had a work-study internship at the office of the mayor of Bloomington, where he was paid $5 an hour. One of his early jobs was to carry Maya Angelou’s bags when she toured East Africa. His has called Maya Angelou a mentor and a supporter of his racial justice activism. Smiley became a radio commentator in 1991, and he hosted the show, Black Entertainment Television (BET) Talk (later renamed BET Tonight). Smiley then began hosting The Tavis Smiley Show on NPR. He left his NPR show, citing the network's inability to reach a more diverse audience. Currently, he hosts Tavis Smiley on PBS on the weekdays and The Tavis Smiley Show from Public Radio International. In 1996, Smiley became a frequent commentator on the Tom Joyner Morning Show, a nationally syndicated radio show broadcast on black and urban stations in the United States. He developed a friendship with host Joyner; together they began hosting annual town hall meetings beginning in 2000 called The State of the Black Union, which were aired live on C-SPAN. Each of these town hall meetings focused on a specific topic affecting the African American community, featuring a panel of African American leaders, educators, and professionals assembled before an audience to discuss problems related to the forum's topic, as well as potential solutions. Smiley also used his commentator status on Joyner's radio show to launch several advocacy campaigns to highlight discriminatory practices in the media and government and to rally support for causes, such as the awarding of a Congressional Gold Medal to civil rights icon Rosa Parks. From 2010 to 2013, Smiley and Cornel West joined forces to host their own radio talk show, Smiley & West.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ralph Ellison started writing what would become The Invisible Man while at a friend's farm in Vermont. The existential novel, published in 1952, focused on an African American civil rights worker from the South who, upon his move to New York, becomes increasingly alienated due to the racism he encountered from both Whites and Blacks. Upon its release, Invisible Man became a runaway hit, winning the National Book Award. With millions of copies printed, the novel would be regarded as a groundbreaking meditation on race and marginalized communities in America, influencing future generations of writers and thinkers. Invisible Man continues to be held up as one of the most highly regarded works in the American literary canon. Ellison described himself and several of his friends growing up as young Renaissance Men, people who looked to culture and intellectualism as a source of identity. A budding instrumentalist, Ellison took up the cornet at the age of 8 and years later, as a trumpeter, attended Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, where he studied music with his eye on becoming a symphony composer. Ellison went to New York with the intent of earning enough money to pay for his college expenses, but ended up relocating. He started to work as a researcher and writer for the New York Federal Writers Program and was befriended by writer Langston Hughes who mentored the fledgling scribe. During this period, Ellison began to publish some of his essays and short stories, and worked as managing editor for The Negro Quarterly.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Touré is an American writer, music journalist, cultural critic, and television personality. While a student at Emory University in 1990, he founded a militant student newspaper, The Fire This Time, dedicated to black liberation theology. In 2012, Touré published Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness?: What it Means to be Black Now, a book on race in modern America based on a collection of interviews Touré conducted with over 100 prominent African-American icons. Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness? was named one of the most influential books of 2011 by both The New York Times and The Washington Post, and the book earned Touré a nomination for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Non-Fiction. In 2013, Touré published I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon, a biography of Prince that discusses the pop artist's works and legacy in a religious context. The book is based on a series of lectures Touré delivered at Harvard University in 2012. Toure currently co-hosts The Cycle on MSNBC. The Cycle's key demographic is made up of Generation X viewers. Touré often introduces race theory into political discussion on the show. In August 2012, as part of a discussion on The Cycle, Touré stated that Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney had engaged in racial coding by calling President Barack Obama "angry" and referred to this as "niggerization." Touré criticized and debated with Piers Morgan on CNN over the latter's March 2012 interview with George Zimmerman's brother, particularly over what Touré saw as Morgan's lack of response to Robert Zimmerman's problematic replies.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alice Walker is an African American novelist, short-story
writer, poet, essayist, and activist. She was born in Eatonton Georgia, in 1944, the eighth and youngest child of a couple of sharecroppers.
In 1961 Walker left Eatonton for Spelman College, a prominent school for black women in Atlanta,
on a state scholarship. During the two years she attended Spelman she became
active in the civil rights movement. After transferring to Sarah Lawrence College in New York,
Walker continued her studies as well as her involvement in civil rights. In
1962 she was invited to the home of Martin Luther King, Jr. in recognition of her attendance at the Youth World
Peace Festival in Finland. Walker received her B.A. degree from Sarah Lawrence
in 1965. Her most famous novel, The Color Purple, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1983. Walker's creative
vision is rooted in the economic hardship, racial terror, and folk wisdom of
African American life and culture, particularly in the rural South. Walker's
harshest critics have condemned her portrayal of black men in The Color Purple as
"male-bashing," but others praise her forthright depiction of taboo
subjects and her clear rendering of folk idiom and dialect. Her writing
explores multidimensional kinships among women and embraces the redemptive
power of social and political revolution. Walker has taught African American
women's studies to college students at Wellesley, the University of
Massachusetts at Boston, Yale, Brandeis, and the University of California at
Berkeley. She supports antinuclear and environmental causes, and her protests
against the oppressive rituals of female circumcision in Africa and the Middle
East make her a vocal advocate for international women's rights.
Reference: Whitted, Qiana "Alice Walker (b. 1944- ). Retrieved April 21, 2015 from New Georgia Encyclopedia http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/alice-walker-b-1944
Reference: Whitted, Qiana "Alice Walker (b. 1944- ). Retrieved April 21, 2015 from New Georgia Encyclopedia http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/alice-walker-b-1944