Alice
Walker is best known for her 1982 novel, The Color of Purple,
which won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into an Oscar-nominated
movie and Broadway musical. Like this story, most of her work
- five novels, and a number of essay and poetry collections, deals
with social issues, particularly race relations, civil rights,
peace, and gender equality. Alice Walker's lifelong activism was
sparked when she met Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr while she was
a student at Spelman College in the 1960s. Meeting him inspired
her to engage in the civil rights movement, and she volunteered
to register black voters in the South, and joined hundreds of
thousands in the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther
King delivered his famous "I Have A Dream" speech. Since
then she has continued to be a leader in progressive politics
and social causes.
