| Revision as of 23:51, 14 February 2011 editDarwinek (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Administrators180,914 editsm Reverted edits by 96.35.163.93 (talk) to last version by Shadowjams← Previous edit | Revision as of 21:55, 15 February 2011 edit undo76.15.176.116 (talk) OTag: blankingNext edit → | ||
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| The best thing that has ever happen to Rosa Parks was when she went to jail, Why? Because she knew that what she was doing was to not only help herself but other peoples as well.I believe strongly that she was a good courage and effort to many people.She made people fell proud of their self.She is not only a leader but a role player.Rosa sat so that many of us won't be the way we are today.Martin spoke to stop what was going on, to make kids and adult feel to help with stopping segregation.And today,yes today our lives are surly good because of those two leaders,they are not the only leaders to help the U.S.A become the way it is.Other leaders such as Harriet Tubman(who help discover the Underground Railroad to freedom)and others help invent and escape slavery.I hope after you read this passage about two or three of our famous hero you learn that whites and blacks are born from the same father and should be brothers and sisters. | |||
| {{for|the British Olympic fencer|Alice Walker (fencer)}} | |||
| {{Infobox Writer <!-- for more information see ] --> | |||
| | name = Alice Walker | image = Alice_Walker.jpg | caption = Alice Walker | |||
| | birthdate = {{birth date and age|1944|02|09}} | |||
| | birthplace = ], ], ] | |||
| | occupation = ], ], ] | |||
| | genre = ] | |||
| | notableworks = '']'' | |||
| | awards = {{awd|]|1983}} | |||
| {{awd|]|1983}} | |||
| | influences = ], ] | |||
| | influenced = ] | |||
| | website = http://www.alicewalkersgarden.com | |||
| }} | |||
| '''Alice Malsenior Walker''' (born February 9, 1944) is an ] author and poet. She has written at length on issues of race and gender, and is most famous for the critically acclaimed novel '']'' for which she won the ]. | |||
| ==Early life== | |||
| Walker was born in ], ], the youngest of eight children, to Willie Lee Walker and Minnie Lou Tallulah Grant. Her father, who was, in her words, "wonderful at math but a terrible farmer," earned only $300 a year from ] and ], while her mother supplemented the family income by working as a maid.<ref name="Apr 2009">World Authors 1995-2000. 2003. Retrieved 10 Apr. 2009, from Biography Reference Bank database.</ref> Her mother worked 11 hours a day for ]17 a week to help pay for Alice to attend college.<ref>{{cite web |author=Walker, Alice |work=] |date=May 6, 2010 |url=http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/201005/20100506_walker.html |title=Alice Walker |publisher=The Smiley Group, Inc. }}</ref> | |||
| Living under ], Walker's mother had struggles with landlords who expected the children of black sharecroppers to work the fields at a young age. A white plantation owner once asserted to her that blacks had “no need for education.” Mrs. Walker’s response to him was ‘You might ''have'' some black children somewhere, but they don’t live in this house. Don’t you ever come around here again talking about how ''my children'' don’t need to learn how to read and write.” When she was four years old, Alice was enrolled in the first grade, a year ahead of schedule.<ref>{{cite book |author=White, Evelyn C. |year=2004 |title=Alice Walker: A Life |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company |place=New York, New York |pages=14–15 }}</ref> | |||
| Growing up with an oral tradition, listening to stories from her grandfather (the model for the character for Mr. in ''The Color Purple''), Walker was writing—very privately—since she was eight years old. "With my family, I had to hide things," she said. "And I had to keep a lot in my mind."<ref>{{cite news |author=Gussow, Mel |title=Once Again, Alice Walker Is Ready to Embrace Her Freedom to Change |newspaper=] |date=December 26, 2000 |at=section E, p.1 }}</ref> | |||
| In 1952, Walker was accidentally wounded in the right eye by a shot from a ] fired by one of her brothers.<ref>http://enloehs.wcpss.net/resources/kingsberry/propaganda.pdf</ref> Because the family had no access to a car, the Walkers were unable to take their daughter to a hospital for immediate treatment, and when they finally brought her to a physician a week later, she was permanently blind in that eye. A disfiguring layer of scar tissue formed over it, rendering the previously outgoing child self-conscious and painfully shy. Stared at and sometimes taunted, she felt like an outcast and turned for solace to reading and to writing poetry. Although when she was 14, the scar tissue was removed—and she subsequently became ] and was voted most-popular girl, as well as queen of her senior class, she realized that her traumatic injury had some value: it allowed her to begin "really to see people and things, really to notice relationships and to learn to be patient enough to care about how they turned out," as she has said.<ref name="Apr 2009" /> | |||
| == Activism == | |||
| Alice Walker met ] when she was a student at ] in Atlanta in the early 1960s. Walker credits King for her decision to return to the ] as an activist for the Civil Rights Movement. She attended the famous ]. As a young adult she volunteered her time registering voters in Georgia and Mississippi.<ref></ref><ref> Accessed 10 February 2010</ref> | |||
| On March 8, 2003, ], on the eve of the ], Alice Walker, ], author of "]", and ], author of "An Unspoken Hunger" were arrested along with 24 others for crossing a police line during an anti-war protest rally outside the White House. Walker and 5,000 other activists associated with the organizations ] and ], marched from ] in Washington D.C. to the White House. The activists encircled the White House, holding hands and singing. In an interview with ], Walker said of the incident, "I was with other women who believe that the women and children of Iraq are just as dear as the women and children in our families, and that, in fact, we are one family. And so it would have felt to me that we were going over to actually bomb ourselves." Walker wrote about the experience in her essay "We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For."<ref> Accessed 12 February 2010</ref> | |||
| In November 2008, Alice Walker wrote "An Open Letter to Barack Obama" that was published on Theroot.com. Walker addresses the newly elected President as "Brother Obama" and writes "Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina, and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about".<ref> Accessed February 2010</ref> | |||
| In March 2009, Alice Walker traveled to ] along with a group of 60 other female activists from the anti-war group ], in response to the controversial ]. The purpose of the trip was to deliver aid, to meet with NGOs and residents, and to persuade Israel and Egypt to open their borders into Gaza. She planned to visit Gaza again in December 2009 to participate in the ].<ref> Accessed February 2010</ref> | |||
| ==Personal life== | |||
| After high school, Walker went to ] in ] on a full scholarship in 1961 and later transferred to ] near New York City, graduating in 1965. Walker became interested in the ] in part due to the influence of activist ], who was one of her professors at Spelman College. Continuing the activism that she participated in during her college years, Walker returned to the South where she became involved with voter registration drives, campaigns for welfare rights, and children's programs in ].<ref> accessed 14 June 2007</ref> | |||
| In 1965, Walker met and later married ], a ] civil rights lawyer. They were married on March 17, 1967 in New York City. Later that year the couple relocated to ], becoming "the first legally married ] couple in Mississippi".<ref name="entertainment.timesonline.co.uk"></ref><ref name="democracy">{{cite news| last =| first =| coauthors =| title = Inner Light in a Time of Darkness: A Conversation with Author and Poet Alice Walker| work =| pages =| language =| publisher = Democracy Now!| date = 2006-11-17| url = http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/11/17/1454228| accessdate = 2007-06-14 }}</ref> This brought them a steady stream of harassment and even murderous threats from the ]. The couple had a daughter, ], in 1969, whom she described in 2008 as "a living, breathing, mixed-race embodiment of the new America that they were trying to forge".<ref name="entertainment.timesonline.co.uk"/> Walker and her husband divorced amicably in 1976. Walker would later become estranged from her daughter, who felt herself to be more of "a political symbol... than a cherished daughter". Rebecca would later publish a memoir entitled ''Black White and Jewish'', chronicling the effects of her parents' relationship on her childhood.<ref>] article by Rebecca Walker: ''How my mother's fanatical views tore us apart'']</ref><ref> Accessed February 2010</ref> | |||
| In the mid-1990s, Walker was involved in a romance with ] ].<ref> Accessed May 2010</ref> | |||
| ==Writing career and success== | |||
| ] of 1989]] | |||
| Walker's first book of poetry was written while she was still a senior at Sarah Lawrence, and she took a brief sabbatical from writing when she was in Mississippi working in the civil rights movement. Walker resumed her writing career when she joined '']'' magazine as an editor before moving to northern ] in the late 1970s. An article she published in 1975 was largely responsible for the renewal of interest in the work of ], who was a large source of inspiration for Walker's writing and subject matter. In 1973, Walker and fellow Hurston scholar Charlotte D. Hunt discovered Hurston's unmarked grave in ]. Both women paid for a modest headstone for the gravesite.<ref></ref> | |||
| In addition to her collected short stories and poetry, Walker's first novel, ''The Third Life of Grange Copeland'', was published in 1970. In 1976, Walker's second novel, ''Meridian'', was published. The novel dealt with activist workers in the South during the civil rights movement, and closely paralleled some of Walker's own experiences. | |||
| In 1982, Walker would publish what has become her best-known work, the novel '']''. About a young ugly black woman fighting her way through not only racist white culture but also patriarchal black culture, it was a resounding commercial success. The book became a bestseller and was subsequently adapted into a critically acclaimed ] as well as a 2005 ] ]. | |||
| Walker has written several other novels, including '']'' and '']'' (which featured several characters and descendants of characters from ''The Color Purple'') and has published a number of collections of short stories, poetry, and other published work. | |||
| Her works typically focus on the struggles of blacks, particularly women, and their struggle against a ], ], and violent society. Her writings also focus on the role of women of color in culture and history. Walker is a respected figure in the liberal political community for her support of unconventional and unpopular views as a matter of principle. | |||
| Additionally, Walker has published several short stories, including the 1973 '']'', in which she discusses feminism, racism against blacks, and the issues raised by young black people who leave home and lose respect for their parents' culture.<ref>Walker, Alice. "Everyday Use." Perrine's Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense. Comp. Thomas R. Arp. New York: Harcourt Brace College, 1994. 90-97.</ref> | |||
| In 2007, Walker gave 122 boxes of manuscripts and archive material to ] Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library.<ref>Justice, Elaine. "" , Dec. 18, 2007</ref> In addition to drafts of writings such as '']'', unpublished poems and writings, and correspondence with editors, the collection includes extensive correspondence with family members, friends and colleagues, an early treatment of the film script for '']'' that was never used, syllabi from courses she taught, and fan mail. The collection also contains a scrapbook of poetry compiled when Walker was 15 entitled "Poems of a Childhood Poetess". | |||
| In January 2009, she was one of over 50 signers of a letter protesting the Toronto Film Festival's "City to City" spotlight on Israeli filmmakers, condemning Israel as an "apartheid regime."<ref>http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/05/filmmakers-react-anti-israel-film-festival-protest/</ref> | |||
| ==Selected awards and honors== | |||
| * ] for ] (1983) (first black woman). | |||
| * ] (First black woman) | |||
| * ] for "Kindred Spirits" 1985. | |||
| * Honorary Degree from the ] (1995) | |||
| * ] named her as "Humanist of the Year" (1997) | |||
| * The ] from the ] | |||
| * The Rosenthal Award from the ] | |||
| * The ] Fellowship, the Merrill Fellowship, and a ] | |||
| * The Front Page Award for Best Magazine Criticism from the Newswoman's Club of New York | |||
| * Induction to the ] in ] (2006) | |||
| ==Selected works== | |||
| {{col-begin}} | |||
| {{col-2}} | |||
| ;Novels and short story collections | |||
| * '']'' (1970) | |||
| * ''In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women'' (1973) | |||
| * '']'' (1976) | |||
| * '']'' (1982) | |||
| * ''You Can't Keep a Good Woman Down: Stories'' (1982) | |||
| * ''To Hell With Dying'' (1988) | |||
| * '']'' (1989) | |||
| * ''Finding the Green Stone'' (1991) | |||
| * '']'' (1992) | |||
| * ''The Complete Stories'' (1994) | |||
| * ''By The Light of My Father's Smile'' (1998) | |||
| * ''The Way Forward Is with a Broken Heart'' (2000) | |||
| * ''Now Is The Time to Open Your Heart'' (2005) | |||
| * ''Devil's My Enemy'' (2008) | |||
| {{col-2}} | |||
| ;Poetry collections | |||
| * ''Once'' (1968) | |||
| * ''Revolutionary Petunias and Other Poems'' (1973) | |||
| * ''Good Night, Willie Lee, I'll See You in the Morning'' (1979) | |||
| * ''Horses Make a Landscape Look More Beautiful'' (1985) | |||
| * ''Her Blue Body Everything We Know: Earthling Poems'' (1991) | |||
| * ''Absolute Trust in the Goodness of the Earth'' (2003) | |||
| * ''A Poem Traveled Down My Arm: Poems And Drawings'' (2003) | |||
| * ''Collected Poems'' (2005) | |||
| * ''Poem at Thirty-Nine'' | |||
| ;Non-fiction | |||
| * '']'' (1983) | |||
| * ''Living by the Word'' (1988) | |||
| * '']'' (1993) | |||
| * ''The Same River Twice: Honoring the Difficult'' (1996) | |||
| * ''Anything We Love Can Be Saved: A Writer's Activism'' (1997) | |||
| * ''Go Girl!: The Black Woman's Book of Travel and Adventure'' (1997) | |||
| * ''Pema Chodron and Alice Walker in Conversation'' (1999) | |||
| * ''Sent By Earth: A Message from the Grandmother Spirit After the Bombing of the World Trade Center and Pentagon'' (2001) | |||
| * ''We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For'' (2006) | |||
| * ''Mississippi Winter IV | |||
| * ''Overcoming Speechlessness'' (2010) | |||
| {{col-end}} | |||
| == Notes == | |||
| {{Reflist|2}} | |||
| == References == | |||
| {{Refbegin}} | |||
| {{cite book |author={{aut|White, Evelyn C.}} |year=2005 |title=Alice Walker: A Life|publisher=] |isbn=0-3933-2826-0}}<br /> | |||
| {{cite book |author={{aut|Walker, Alice}} and {{aut|Parmar, Pratibha}} |year=1993 |title=Warrior Marks: Female Genital Mutilation and the Sexual Blinding of Women|publisher=Diane Books Publishing Company |isbn=0-7881-5581-4}} | |||
| {{Refend}} | |||
| ==External links== | |||
| {{wikiquote}} | |||
| <div style="font-size:0.9em;"> | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * Lannan Foundation (Audio, 15 mins) August 21, 1987 | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * | |||
| * at Emory University. | |||
| * , from ''Democracy Now!'' October 27, 2004. interview February 13, 2006. | |||
| <!-- Metadata: see ] --> | |||
| {{Persondata | |||
| |NAME= Alice Walker | |||
| |ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Walker, Alice Malsenior | |||
| |SHORT DESCRIPTION= Writer | |||
| |DATE OF BIRTH= February 9, 1944 | |||
| |PLACE OF BIRTH= ], ], ] | |||
| |DATE OF DEATH= | |||
| |PLACE OF DEATH= | |||
| }} | |||
| {{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Alice}} | |||
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Revision as of 21:55, 15 February 2011
The best thing that has ever happen to Rosa Parks was when she went to jail, Why? Because she knew that what she was doing was to not only help herself but other peoples as well.I believe strongly that she was a good courage and effort to many people.She made people fell proud of their self.She is not only a leader but a role player.Rosa sat so that many of us won't be the way we are today.Martin spoke to stop what was going on, to make kids and adult feel to help with stopping segregation.And today,yes today our lives are surly good because of those two leaders,they are not the only leaders to help the U.S.A become the way it is.Other leaders such as Harriet Tubman(who help discover the Underground Railroad to freedom)and others help invent and escape slavery.I hope after you read this passage about two or three of our famous hero you learn that whites and blacks are born from the same father and should be brothers and sisters.