Alice Walker's (1944- ) Meridian (1976) boldly abandons chronology in its account of the impact on the lives of three young people called to the service of the movement. The novel opens in the 1970s, some years after the movement's high point, then flashes back to a series of episodes that relate the experiences of three civil rights workers: Truman Held, a southern black artist; Lynne Rabinowitz, a northern, white, Jewish college student; and, principally, Meridian Hill, a southern black woman, who, at 17, is abandoned by her husband after the birth of her baby. Accepting a scholarship to attend a black college in Atlanta, a decision which involves leaving her child to be raised by others, Meridian meets Truman and, later, Lynne, and the three become involved in the Voter Education Project. Truman has a brief affair with Meridian but leaves her for Lynne. He and Lynne get married, and continue the movement's work in Mississippi, while Meridian, committed to the original cause exemplified by Martin Luther King, Jr., finds herself alienated by the rising tide of militancy in the movement. The emergence of this new militancy, excluding white participation, ostracizes Lynne, who becomes abused and self-destructive, guilty of the sin of whiteness. Despite the birth of their child and their move to New York City, Truman and Lynne separate. Lynne, who has been disowned by her parents, is left to struggle in poverty to raise her child. When the child is attacked and murdered, Lynne falls apart, and Truman abandons the struggle. Meridian discovers that she can accept the need for violence, but only from the traditional, simple, churchgoing people, "the righteous guardians of the people's memories," not the calculating, aggressive, educated young militants. In the conclusion, Truman is reunited with Meridian, but as a follower, not a leader. Meridian's patient, difficult struggle for self-identity serves as Truman's model of selfless service to the cause.

As a meditation on the Civil Rights movement, Meridian is notable for the honesty with which it explores the questions of violence, sexual roles, and the complexity of interracial relations. But the movement's major misstep, from the novel's point of view, is illustrated early on in the emblematic story of the "Sojourner," a beautiful, enormous magnolia tree that stands in the center of the college Meridian attends. Student demonstrators, furious at the college administration's refusal to permit a funeral ceremony for an expelled student, destroy the tree, the rich repository of folklore dating back through slave days. The destruction of the past in the name of future justice is a fatal error that Meridian comes to recognize and, in the course of the rest of her life, tries to rectify. The fact that the protagonists in this novel pay a severe price for their commitment does not, finally, negate the value of their struggle. In her 1967 essay "The Civil Rights Movement: What Good Was It?," writer Alice Walker summarized that value: "It brought us to Life."

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