"Critical" essay on racism in The Color Purple by Alice Walker. Includes other various examples in relation.

On March 25, 1931 in Scottsboro, Alabama, nine African American boys were arrested and charged for gang-raping two white girls on a train. Even though they were innocent, and one of the girls admitted that the conviction was false, eight of the boys were sentenced to death, and one of them was given life imprisonment. The racial discrimination that took place in Alabama with the Scottsboro boys and their trial was very similar to the discrimination in …

…gt;Racism in the black community is displayed in The Color Purple throughout the novel, mostly by Sofia. She displays how a strong black woman is crumbled by racism through intensive beatings in prison, and then dishonored by becoming a maid to a white woman. Sofia did not even have a trial for the crime of protecting her pride and her self. This was common in the black community until the civil rights movement started.