Where It All Goes Down
Mostly Southern Georgia, Mid-1960s
While some of Walker's characters make quick trips north to NYC or west to California, most of the serious action takes place in the South. It's where Walker's narrators meet Laurel and Luna, it's where Irene fails miserably in her adult literacy program, and it's where Sarah Davis returns to bury her father.
The South is clearly an important place in Walker's own life. Like many of her characters, she worked in the South during the '60s to register voters and participate in other activities linked to the Civil Rights Movement.
Georgia was not exactly a welcoming place for a person of color at that time. In "Laurel," for example, we see the narrator's practical dilemma when she and the object of her lust can't find any place to be together because they are different races.
When they try to hold hands in the street, a colleague freaks out: "'Don't you know this is outrageous?' a young black man asked us, pulling us into his car […]" (Laurel.21).
It's hostile territory, but that's precisely why Walker's female narrators want to be there. They're young, talented, and idealistic—they want to make a change in the world—which means they have to go to the place that's hot like a keg of gunpowder.
It's dangerous—and sweaty hot, too—but it's the place and time that will guarantee these ladies a place in history.