Alice Walker

Alice Walker was born on February 9, 1944, in Eatonton, Georgia. She was the eighth child of Willie Lee and Minnie Lou Grant Walker who were sharecroppers. When Walker was eight years old one of her older brothers shot her in the eye with a BB gun by accident blinding her. Alice Walker was very intelligent in school. She graduated high school as a valedictorian and with a rehabilitation scholarship was able to go to college in 1961.

She received her bachelor of arts degree from Sarah Lawrence College in 1965. Walker became very interested in the U.S. civil rights movement and has spoken for the woman's movement, the anti-apartheid movement and against female genital mutilation. She also participated in voter registration drives, campaigns for welfare rights and children's programs in Mississippi. Later in 19 65, Walker met and later married Mel Leventhal, a Jewish civil rights lawyer. They became the first legally married inter-racial couple in Mississippi.

Their relationship wasn't welcome which resulted in them being harassed and getting murderous threats from the Ku Klux Klan. The couple