This is the story of Celie, a black women from the American South and the community of women that surround her. Although the book looks at the sexism and racism that black American women face, it also stresses the bonds the women share.
Alice Walker has been credited with inventing the word "womanist" to describe African American women's experience of feminism ("womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender").
The Color Purple won the Pullitzer Prize in 1983 and inspired the Color Purple Foundation (created by Walker's sister Ruth) to promote charitable work in the field of education.
