CVK
Rebecca Walker spoke at U Mich Tuesday night as part of a series of events taking place this month at the University in honor of Black History Month, with the theme ‘Loud Words, Louder Actions.’

Walker is best-known for her first book, Black, White and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self, which reflected on her experiences growing up in a biracial family, with a black mother and a Jewish father. Her parents were both active in the civil rights movement, and her mother–Alice Walker–won the Pulitzer Prize for her book “The Color Purple.”

But in her speech, Walker called for students and community members to exchange the traditional forms of activism, such as boycotts and marches, for a search for inner happiness and peace:

“We can change laws and make new policies, but we will never be happy,” Walker said…

“I think the loudest action we can take is to become a better human being, more loving, more compassionate and less aggressive,” Walker said…

“We are not spending enough time cultivating ourselves, cultivating our highest expectations for who we can be as human beings,” Walker said.