ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Alice Walker

Alice Walker was born and raised in Eatonton, Georgia. She was the eighth child in a family of sharecroppers and always felt labeled by living in the South. After high school, Walker went to Spelman College on a full scholarship and later attended Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

While in college, Walker was inspired by one of her professors to take part in the Civil Rights Movement. She worked in the South helping to register voters, promote children's programs, and work for welfare rights. She has since become known as a feminist but prefers the term womanist instead.

In 1965, Walker married a Jewish Civil Rights lawyer, and they became the first legally married inter-racial couple in Mississippi. During their marriage they received numerous threats from the Ku Klux Klan but persevered and took joy in the birth of their daughter. The two eventually divorced, and their daughter became an author as well.

Alice Walker remains active in environmental, feminist/womanist causes and issues of economic justice while continuing to write.

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