Black History Month Spotlight

The Color Purple (1982) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by acclaimed author Alice Walker.
Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on female black life during the 1930s in the Southern United States, addressing numerous issues including poverty, racism, sexism, and the early African American woman's exceedingly low position in American social culture. The novel tells the story of a young African American girl named Celie, who is transformed as she finds her self-worth through the help of two strong female companions while coming of age in the rural South. Walker emphasizes throughout the novel that the ability to express one’s thoughts and feelings is crucial to developing a sense of self. (This is also an acute and imperative theme in Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.)
The novel was adapted into a film in 1985 starring Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Oprah Winfrey, and Margaret Avery.