Constance Curry, Joan C. Browning, Dorothy Dawson Burlage, Penny Patch, Theresa Del Pozzo, Sue Thrasher, Elaine DeLott Baker, Emmie Schrader Adams, Casey Hayden. Deep in Our Hearts: Nine White Women in the Freedom Movement. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2000. xv + 400 pp. $29.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8203-2266-7. Reviewed by Jennifer Ritterhouse Published on H-SAWH (June, 2001) Telling Their Own Stories civil rights organizations during the frst half of Joan C. Browning, Dorothy Dawson Burlage, the1960s. Each woman expresses her deep faith in Penny Patch, Theresa Del Pozzo, Sue Thrasher, the values of equality and human fellowship that Elaine DeLott Baker, Emmie Schrader Adams, and characterized the student movement's early Casey Hayden years, as well as her gratitude for having once been part of a beloved community. And each dis‐ Deep in Our Hearts: Nine White Women in the cusses her response to SNCC's ideological shift Freedom Movement recounts the "costly times" of away from interracialism and toward Black Pow‐ the civil rights struggle that the book's nine co-au‐ er. For some, this transformation and the eventual thors "wouldn't have missed for the world" (xiii). expulsion of whites from the organization were >From intimate personal essays, we learn how a devastating. But most had left SNCC before inter‐ handful of very young white women from varied nal racial tensions reached the breaking point, regional, cultural, and class backgrounds crossed and several managed to remain active in social racial boundaries and defied social conventions justice efforts through other organizations and in by dedicating their lives to a movement to eradi‐ other areas. As historian Barbara Ransby notes in cate segregation and racial prejudice. "Why us?" her foreword, these women's essays refute the the authors ask of their own histories. "How did common notion that white activists of the 1960s we fnd our way" into the freedom movement? "either burned out, sold out, or tuned out." In‐ "What happened to us there? How did we leave, stead, the authors reveal "a profound sense of and what did we take with us? And, especially, pride and continued commitment to the values what was it like?" (xiii). they embraced as young women in their late Deep in Our Hearts addresses all of these teens and early twenties" (viii). The inclusion of questions, focusing primarily on each woman's up-to-date biographical sketches of each author at experiences working with the Student Non-Vio‐ the end of the volume adds to its value as a retro‐ lent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and other spective on the period since the mid-1960s. For H-Net Reviews teachers of twentieth-century history, Deep in Our men, I need to say here that I was approached by Hearts becomes a valuable resource for answer‐ two in those early days," Constance Curry writes ing students' frequent question of "Where are in the book's opening essay (p. 15). She explains they now?" the outcome of each proposition, and several oth‐ The book is also an intriguing study in the his‐ er of the nine authors are equally frank, largely torical self-consciousness of historical subjects. because they know that the personal and political "My speaking part in Freedom Movement histo‐ dynamics of interracial sex are subjects historians ries consists of one line, uttered on Tuesday, De‐ and other observers discuss frequently, but not cember 19, 1961," Joan C. Browning writes near with as much sensitivity as these nine women the start of her essay, "Shiloh Witness" (p. 40). She might like. goes on to quote historian Howard Zinn's descrip‐ Similarly, several of the authors directly con‐ tion of the mass meeting at Shiloh Baptist Church front issues of sexism and/or the development of in Albany, Georgia, where, just released from jail feminism within the civil rights movement. Most after the Freedom Ride that helped initiate the Al‐ important, we learn about the drafting of the 1964 bany Movement, she offered a few words of en‐ SNCC position paper "Women in the Movement" couragement to local residents.[1] Browning's de‐ from multiple perspectives. Casey Hayden, Elaine cision to quote Zinn suggests the extent to which DeLott Baker, and Emmie Schrader Adams each her memory and understanding of her participa‐ place themselves on the scene at the SNCC staff re‐ tion in the movement--indeed, the very sense of treat in Waveland, Mississippi, where they and identity expressed in her essay's title--have been Mary King and one or two other white women shaped by historians' analyses. The same is true pieced together this analysis of the ways that sex‐ for all of the contributors, as their collective pref‐ ism was comparable to racism. As Hayden writes, ace makes clear. Sometimes doubting the histori‐ this was "a novel idea at the time--so novel, in cal significance of their experiences or the coher‐ fact, that the word sexism didn't exist in our lexi‐ ence of their multivocal project, "they moved for‐ con" (p. 365). Long considered a milestone in the ward ... by examining what has been written by development of second-wave feminism, "Women others about our lives and times, arriving at the in the Movement" was initially "an internal edu‐ clear perception that no one could tell our stories cational document" for SNCC staffers (p. 365), and but we ourselves" (pp. xiv-xv). Given the new so‐ its creation was a matter of huddling "in a con‐ phistication with which a number of historians of spiratorial press around a mimeograph machine the American South are approaching issues of in the middle of the night" (p. 271). Indeed, Baker both individual and collective memory, the au‐ describes "how I felt, like a naughty schoolgirl, thors' historical self-consciousness makes their sneaking up to the second foor of the main build‐ book all the more significant as a primary source. ing with one or two co-conspirators late in the [2] evening "to place copies of the unsigned docu‐ Because they do know how others have de‐ ment on a table alongside the other position pa‐ scribed their experiences, these essayists make a pers to be discussed the next day" (p. 272). Sur‐ point of recounting events already deemed to prisingly, none of the women who helped author have historical significance, often providing new "Women in the Movement" reflect on the ridicule insights or more details than historians' narra‐ the paper received at the next day's meeting, tives provide. They also address frequently asked though Hayden acknowledges that "our writing questions: "Since we are asked so often about sex‐ was generally attributed to a SNCC longtimer, the ual relations between white women and black driven, stalwart Ruby Doris Smith Robinson." Robinson did not disown the paper and, Hayden 2 H-Net Reviews continues, "No one was going to tangle with Ruby timately and worked together closely in the stu‐ Doris, or with the other strong black women of dent movement's early years. Thus, Constance SNCC. The paper caused hardly a ripple" (p. 365). Curry not only gives us a delightful glimpse of Undoubtedly, the historical work of Sara Ruby Doris Smith Robinson to compare with the Evans has helped Baker, Hayden, and Adams see tough leader Hayden later describes--"We were the significance of a memo written on the fy that ready to go downtown [for a demonstration in "caused hardly a ripple."[3] Yet these authors are Rock Hill, South Carolina] but we had to wait for also writing against common historical interpre‐ Ruby Doris's hair curlers to set (p. 23)--but also tations. "To make our memo relevant to a SNCC mentions meeting Joan Browning at an August staff meeting, we listed examples from the daily 1961 conference at Paine College in Augusta, life of female SNCC workers. This has led to a dis‐ Georgia. Browning then narrates the events at Au‐ torted slant by later commentators, as if the prob‐ gusta, which included the brutal stabbing of a lo‐ lem was 'sexism in the movement,'" Adams com‐ cal leader, in more detail. Meanwhile, Dorothy plains. "No one ever said SNCC was in any way Dawson Burlage, the third essayist, arrived in At‐ worse than the world at large," she continues. "In‐ lanta in fall 1961 to work for the National Student deed, it was quite a bit better" (p. 325). Hayden, Association's Southern Student Human Relations too, addresses historians both directly and indi‐ Project, which Curry directed. With Curry's help, rectly. First, she rejects the notion that "Women in she also became Joan Browning's roommate--just the Movement" was a tactic designed to gain as she had shared an apartment with Casey Hay‐ white women greater leadership in SNCC. Second, den before leaving Texas. These personal connec‐ she makes a point of redeeming Stokely tions reflect the complex interweaving of organi‐ Carmichael, whose frequently quoted jibe that zations that supported the civil rights cause. All of "the proper position of women in the movement the essayists had some affiliation with SNCC but is prone" has branded him in many minds as a they also participated in a range of other groups horrible sexist. He was "quite the opposite," she including the National Student Association, Young assures (p. 365-66). Theresa Del Pozzo seconds: Women's Christian Association (YWCA), Southern "That is a funny line today, and it was then, and Regional Council, Southern Conference Education‐ no one took it any other way. Especially not Stoke‐ al Fund, American Friends Service Committee, ly, Casey, or me, several of the alleged antagonists Council of Federated Organizations, and Southern in this debate." Far from being antagonists, Del Student Organizing Committee.