Abstract: The transformation of hair, as part of the Civil Rights Movement, reflects the identity shift of the African American. Hair in Meridian by Alice Walker represents race and gender politics with which African American women are confronted in a subtle way. The protagonist Meridian showes her self-esteem as an African American with her braids and acts as a leader with her short hair, which signifies the strategies African American women use to rebel against racial and gender oppression and the dilemma they encounter. Through the narrative of everyday life such as hair style under the social background of the Civil Rights Movement in 1960s, Alice Walker reveals the discipline on the body of African American women by dominant white culture and the parochialism of black nationalist discourse, represents the participation of African American women in the Civil Rights Movement and moves the black aesthetic agenda forward from a monolithic and race-centered model to diversity.

Key words: Meridian, hair, race politics, gender politics