Past+Events

-The book takes place during the time period 1880's-1920's. In the book, slavery was just abolished, therefore there was still alot of racist people and problems. Our main chartacter, Celie is black and not only does she have to deal with men that are extremely masculine and sexist, but also the fact that she was black and people still supported slavery in her life.Black people were considered lower class, therefore they were treated very unfairly. Men in this time period had the idea in their heads that they were better than women, and women should mind them at all costs. Shug has to deal with a few men in her life that beat her, and treated her unfairly.

**Events in 1990's were: **
 1902 -Harry (Bucky) Lew broke the color line in professional basketball 1905 -Reverend Charles Randolph Uncles visited Lowell. He was the first African American Cathlic piest in the US. * In the book Celie kept writing to God so religion must be an important part of her life. 1914 -Fred Faulcon organized the intergrated Boy Scout Troop 7. * During this time blacks and whites were becoming closer together 1918 - Africian American troops fought in segregated units during World War one. 1963 - Martin Luther King gave his "I have a Dream" speech. media type="youtube" key="PbUtL_0vAJk" height="344" width="425" We picked this video because it shows that even though slavery was over with African Americans still had to face hard times. Many of them marched on Washington, shown above, and prostested in many other nonviolent ways. As Dr. Martin Luther King states in his speech he has a dream that all blacks and whites can be united by the content of their character. This relates to the book the //Color Purple// because Celie and others are not treated with respect from white people and they only wish that they were treat equally. An example of that is when the mayors wife asks Sofia to be her maid, she thought just because Sofia was black that she would work for her, but Sofia strongly refused and set her straight. **Event that were taking place when the book was published (1982):**  1980's: Toni Cade Bambar 1982: ** --- **Bryant Gumble becomes anchor of the Today Show, becoming the first african american to hold the post on a major network. 1983: ** --- **President Ronald Reagan signs a bill establishing January 20 as a federal holiday in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.
 * --- **The first major migration of African Americans from the South to the North began. Many Africans lived in the south because there were many plantations there.
 * --- **The NAACP formed a local chapter led by Harold M. Wingood.
 * --- **The NAACP was originally known as the National Negro Committee
 * --- **Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. was the first African American speaker in a state legislature. He held the speaker position until 1995 when he was elected mayor of San Francisco.
 * --- **Toni Cade Bambara wins the American Book Award for the book //The Salt Eaters//.
 * --- **Robert L. Johnson begins Black Entertainment Television (BET)
 * --- **Guion S. Bluford, Jr. a crew member on the Challenger, becomes the first African American astronaut to make a space flight.
 * --- **Vanessa Williams becomes the first crowned Miss America.
 * --- Alice Walker’s The Color Purple wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction!**

Although the events that are stated above are not the only things that happend during that time they are still significant and every day of every year something new happend that changed black history, whether is was refusing to give a seat up on a bus or becoming the first black president.