Table Of Content

Black Religion / Womanist Thought / Social Justice Series Editors Dwight N. Hopkins and Linda E. Thomas Published by Palgrave Macmillan “How Long this Road”: Race, Religion, and the Legacy of C. Eric Lincoln Edited by Alton B. Pollard, III and Love Henry Whelchel, Jr. African American Humanist Principles: Living and Thinking Like the Children of Nimrod By Anthony B. Pinn White Theology: Outing Supremacy in Modernity By James W. Perkinson The Myth of Ham in Nineteenth-Century American Christianity: Race, Heathens, and the People of God By Sylvester Johnson Loving the Body: Black Religious Studies and the Erotic Edited by Anthony B. Pinn and Dwight N. Hopkins Transformative Pastoral Leadership in the Black Church By Jeffery L. Tribble, Sr. Shamanism, Racism, and Hip Hop Culture: Essays on White Supremacy and Black Subversion By James W. Perkinson Women, Ethics, and Inequality in U.S. Healthcare: “To Count Among the Living” By Aana Marie Vigen Black Theology in Transatlantic Dialogue: Inside Looking Out, Outside Looking In By Anthony G. Reddie Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil By Emilie M. Townes Whiteness and Morality: Pursuing Racial Justice through Reparations and Sovereignty By Jennifer Harvey Black Theology and Pedagogy By Noel Leo Erskine The Theology of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Desmond Mpilo Tutu By Johnny B. Hill Conceptions of God, Freedom, and Ethics in African American and Jewish Theology By Kurt Buhring The Origins of Black Humanism in America: Reverend Ethelred Brown and the Unitarian Church By Juan M. Floyd-Thomas Black Religion and the Imagination of Matter in the Atlantic World By James A. Noel Bible Witness in Black Churches By Garth Kasimu Baker-Fletcher Enslaved Women and the Art of Resistance in Antebellum America By Renee K. Harrison Ethical Complications of Lynching: Ida B. Wells’s Interrogation of American Terror By Angela D. Sims Representations of Homosexuality: Black Liberation Theology and Cultural Criticism By Roger A. Sneed The Tragic Vision of African American Religion By Matthew V. Johnson Racism and the Image of God By Karen Teel Gifts of Virtue, Alice Walker, and Womanist Ethics By Melanie L. Harris Women’s Spirituality and Education in the Black Church By Yolanda Y. Smith (forthcoming) Gifts of Virtue, Alice Walker, and Womanist Ethics Melanie L. Harris GIFTS OF VIRTUE, ALICE WALKER, AND WOMANIST ETHICS Copyright © Melanie L. Harris, 2010. All rights reserved. First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978–0–230–61511–3 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Harris, Melanie L., 1975– Gifts of virtue, Alice Walker, and womanist ethics / Melanie L. Harris. p. cm.—(Black religion/womanist thought/social justice) ISBN 978–0–230–61511–3 (hardback) 1. Walker, Alice, 1944– —Criticism and interpretation. 2. Walker, Alice, 1944– —Ethics. 3. Walker, Alice, 1944– —Religion. 4. Spirituality in literature. 5. Virtues in literature. 6. Values in literature. I. Title. PS3573.A425Z67 2010 813(cid:1).54—dc22 2010014003 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: October 2010 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America. To Survivors May we all be truly free and live our beauty in wholeness. This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix Series Editors’ Preface xi Introduction 1 1 “A Womanist Story”: Alice Walker’s Moral Biography 15 2 A Path Set before Us: Womanist Virtue Method 49 3 Doing the Work: Building a Womanist Virtue Ethic 59 4 Stay on the Path, Walk the Journey: Values to Hold On 89 5 Take Back Your Life: Virtues to Live By 109 6 Third-Wave Womanism: Expanding Womanist Discourse, Making Room for Our Children 125 Epilogue: The Gifts of Alice Walker 139 Notes 151 Index 173 Alice Walker: Work Cited 177 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments This book was born from Love. From my mother’s warm embrace, the glow of her smile, her scholarly mind, and her deep laughing jour- neys with life. From the steady loving kindness of my brother whose wise strength and healing light transformed valleys into spaces of hope. From the breath of my father’s ancestral presence, guiding with smiles, showering peace, pride, and protection. To my mother, the Rev. Naomi O. Harris you have in so many ways breathed life back into my soul. Thank you. In search of your gardens I found my own. Your daughter loves you. To my brother, John Jay A. Harris Jr., thank you for being a deep thinker, a builder of community and an artist of head and heart. You paved a way for my spirit to take flight. Thank you. I believe in you and I love you. I am grateful for you, John A. Harris Sr. for the flow of wisdom that continues to meet me along the river of life. Daddy, I see you. To Sonia Denise, Keith, Alisha, Nathan and Desmond Dozier for being a home for my heart, and to the Harris, Wells, Jones, and Perry fami- lies, thank you for pouring your love, laughter, and prayer into this journey. Friendship like water has nurtured this book from the beginning and lifted me through the process of writing. I accept this as grace in my life and for each gift I am grateful. To my dear friends and sis- ters, Kate Ott, Jennifer Harvey, Rebecca Todd Peters, Layli Phillips, Davina Lopez, Antoinette Kemp, Regina Dotson, Grace White, and especially, to Cheryl Walker who taught me how to be in the present moment. To the extraordinary mentors who assisted me during the initial phase of this project, Emilie M. Townes, Peter J. Paris, Anthony B. Pinn, Gary Dorrien and Larry Rasmussen. I am especially grateful to Dr. Townes for her consistent support, to Dr. Paris for reading sev- eral drafts of this manuscript and to Dr. Larry and Nyla Rasmussen for serving as midwives as I wrote, and wrote, and wrote! There are

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Melanie L. Harris dives into the spirituality and life work of Alice Walker, literary genius and poet. Through the lens of Womanist ethics, Harris takes an inside look into the virtues and values that can be lifted from a study of Walker’s non-fiction work. This work enlivens the debate in African