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April 1983

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Achievement · literature
Alice Walker wins Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple

Walker became the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for this epistolary novel set in the Jim Crow South, which also won the National Book Award. The novel's unflinching treatment of sexual violence and its celebration of Black women's resilience made it both controversial and transformative.

Events

  1. April 1983
    Alice Walker wins Pulitzer Prize for The Color Purple

    Walker became the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for this epistolary novel set in the Jim Crow South, which also won the National Book Award. The novel's unflinching treatment of sexual violence and its celebration of Black women's resilience made it both controversial and transformative.

  2. April 12, 1983
    Harold Washington, first Black mayor of Chicago

    Washington wins a historic election in a major American city.