Ms. Walker author, poet, and political evangelist, born into a family of eight, she was the last. Born in 1944 near the end of World War II in the southern state of Georgia, in Edenville. Walker lived in a three-room house in which everybody had to share everything. She loved the woodlands because she could roam all over in the open plains of the south. She felt crowed at home and could not wait for playtime in the fields.

At the age of eight Walker shot in the eye with a BB gun by her youngest brother. She could not see out of that eye for many years. The family could not take her to the hospital because they could not afford the bill. They just bandaged the eye and she went on living. Later in life, the eye became part of her personality; one could say that she could identify with other disabled African Americans. The eye did not look normal. It became deformed without proper medical attention. When she went to school the children teased her and looked at her in strange, mocking ways. This made her look away from people or look down at the ground when talking to others.

Self-esteem is one of the greatest problems for disabled people; could she identify with other disabled Black Americans? This question is still open. Her parents sent her away to live with her grandparents soon after the BB gun incident. She thought she had done something wrong and thought that her brother should have been the one sent away.

Does Ms. Walker identify herself as disabled? One could see by her writings that she has the passion and compassion for the underdog and the underprivileged. But why did her parents send her away? Was it because she would be different than other children?

Ms. Walker went to segregated schools most of her life before going to college. Jim Crow laws left a lasting impression on the young writer. She always has a story about Black oppression in the old American sout

h. Ms Walker got a scholarship to Spellman College to study chemistry and the sciences but a strange force kept her mind on political events. She joined SNICC and the Student Non-violent organization. She was later elected a Delegate to the World Youth Peace Festival, and her world changed forever.

She had been reading and watching the new Civil Rights Movement and the speeches of Martin L. King, Jr. She knew what she had to do and went to the now famous March on Washington in 1963. She was there when The Rev. Minister Martin L. King, Jr. gave the "I Have A Dream" speech. Dr. Rev. King became her hero and took her spirit to a higher level.

The most dramatic change in this woman's life was when she went to New York, at the Sara Lawrence College for Writing. This is where she really understood the fundamentals of writing. This is where she began to understand what people wanted to read. She was a most unusual writer, unlike other Black writers. She wrote about the south. Her story told of being poor in the country, unlike her counterparts who wrote about inner city life. Most of them wrote about poor Black males.

She wrote about the plight of poor Black women; she wrote about sexual oppression; she wrote about having little or no power in the old south; she also wrote about how powerful Black women were in her immediate family and how those powers manifest themselves today.

She studied hard and got very good grades, but she had outside interests. SNICC wanted her to join the protest and help with voter registration. Ms. Walker made the right choice and stayed in school, graduating instead.

She later moved to Chicago and married a Jewish Civil Rights Lawyer, another member of SNICC. She feared for her husband's life each time he went outside. This later would take its toll on their marriage.

Walker wrote her third poetry book and people were beginning to notice her distinct writing style. In 1969 she produced her first novel, The Life of Copland about the struggles in the south with the Civil Rights Movement. And in 1970, she published a poetry book called Wants. This book took away the pain she felt as a result of the murder of Dr. King, Jr.

Walker took a writing class at Wesley College where she found her literary heroine Zora Neil Hurston. In 1973 she went to Ms. Hurston's grave and found out it covered with stones and rocks; she repaired it with a headstone. During that same year she wrote Trials of Black Woman-Love and Tribulations, again about the life of poor Black woman in the South. She became the spokesperson for many southern Black woman.

In 1974 the Women's Movement got its wings and Ms. Walker had already been in the movement, like other black woman. But the Women's Movement did not notice or recognize women of color in their movement. That would change when Walker was asked to be poet and story editor for the new MS. Magazine. This kept her busy for about two years and gave her world recognition.

In 1976 she wrote Meridian, a story about a young southern poor Black female student joining the Civil Rights Movement. It was like an autobiography of the life she wanted. Meridian received world acclaim and even a TV series on Cable.

Alice Walker moved to San Francisco, but she longed for the open spaces. Her south had become too crowed and she needed space to write. Her first book while living on the west coast was Can't Keep A Good Woman Down, about the struggles of a working mother trying to make it in the new American economy.

She once again tried love in her life with a fine brother Robert Allen who lifted her spirit and got her on a new writing spree. In 1982, The Color Purple was released and American stores could not keep it in stock. Later that year, it won the Pulitzer Prize for writing, and it also later became a screenplay and movie. This book was written in Black or Slave English, which created a firestorm in the United States. Ms. Walker wanted to preserve Black English. She paid homage to our Black ancestors and Black heroes.

Many scholars did not like the book because it was not written in proper English. This book also created arguments about Black men and their aggression toward Black Women. Many black males stated that it was harsh on the black male. Ms. Walker was just telling it like it was and how poor Black southern families lived-something other writers refused to do.

I thought it was wonderful because it opened the door for Black Americans to converse about the old south from a female's point of view.

Alice Walker's writing can be seen in one complete book of her poetry called, Her Blue Body- 1966-1990. She has also completed two children's books: The Scent of Joy, and Finding the Green Stone and Past, Present, and Spirit, 1990.

Ms. Walker will always write about the oppressed and underprivileged. She will always ask the reader to look into his or her soul to see if he/she can help somebody or make the world a better place. She will always ask the reader to help humanity--help make this world to be a better place.
THAT IS THE GRAY LINE

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