Women's History Month Heroes: Alice Walker

GLSEN is proud to honor Women's History Month by celebrating contributions of women to the LGBT and safe schools movements. Throughout March we will be recognizing heroes who have made significant contributions to the LGBT and safe schools movements. Click here for more information, and keep reading all month long for new additions!

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Alice Walker (b. 1944) is a bisexual African American author and poet known for her substantive writing on the topics of race and gender. She was born and raised in Georgia and studied at both Spelman College in Atlanta and then at Sarah Lawrence in New York. While in New York she married a Jewish civil rights lawyer, Melvyn Leventhal. Walker actively participated in the Civil Rights Movement by returning to Georgia to help register black voters. Soon after, she moved with her husband to Mississippi, making them the first legally married inter-racial couple in the state. In 1983 Walker won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her now-famous book The Color Purple, becoming the first Black woman to win the award. Alice remains an avid activist to this day and is infamous for her involvement in several anti-war protests with the group Code Pink.

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We want to know who your heroes are! If you know a woman who has contributed to the LGBT and safe schools movement, post about them on the Gay-Straight Alliances Facebook page. You can also tweet your heroes to @DayofSilence using the #GLSENWHM hash tag!