Series Introduction: Meridian and the Cost of Freedom

The Civil Rights Movement is often remembered through its most visible moments—marches, speeches, and leaders whose names echo through history. But Alice Walker’s Meridian asks us to look deeper. It tells the story of Meridian Hill, a young Black woman whose sacrifices and endurance reveal the hidden costs of freedom work.

This series explores Walker’s novel not as a simple narrative, but as a meditation on what it means to resist. Through Meridian’s journey, we see the quiet weight of activism, the overlooked labor of women, the toll of struggle on the body, and the radical act of enduring long after the spotlight fades. Each post will reflect on one of these themes, inviting us to consider how Walker’s vision speaks not only to the past but to the unfinished work of justice today.