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 defed social conventions justice eforts 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 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 ofered 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 staf re‐ tion in the movement--indeed, the very sense of treat in Waveland, , 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 signifcance 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 stafers (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 signifcant 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 signifcance, often providing new "Women in the Movement" refect 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 signifcance 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 staf 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 refect 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 afliation 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. Pozzo suggests, she, Hayden, and Carmichael To trace these women's organizational back‐ were still part of a beloved community, "a group grounds is one way to explain how they came to of black and white, northern and southern men participate in the civil rights struggle, which is and women partying together on the Waveland both the book's major purpose and its greatest Pier" (p. 198). contribution to the historical literature on this pe‐ Although its treatment of topics like interra‐ riod. "Sometimes people ask when I joined the cial sex, sexism, and the origins of second-wave movement," Joan Browning writes. "'Join' is too feminism is important, Deep in Our Hearts is of‐ formal for how the movement happened. People ten most compelling precisely when its authors identifed a role for themselves and then moved are describing parties, friendships, and other day- in and out in response to individual inspiration. I to-day details of the freedom struggle. Here, the tried to be a student and nonviolent and one of book's layout is especially efective as the frst few the coordinated. That is how I came to be on the essays introduce women who knew each other in‐ Albany Freedom Ride" (p. 66). Other essayists' sto‐ ries, particularly those of the four other southern‐

3 H-Net Reviews ers (Curry, Burlage, Thrasher and Hayden), echo tors, who could be relied on to tell the truth in Browning's account of drifting into--then dedicat‐ court and to the press. The observer also would ing themselves to--the freedom struggle. not be in jail, and so would be free to contact the Browning's description of the Albany Free‐ SNCC headquarters" (p. 67). While the mechanics dom Ride is a particularly good example of how of a freedom ride may seem minor in comparison the personal narratives in Deep in Our Hearts en‐ with its efects, it is precisely by feshing out these rich historical interpretations through their inti‐ details of who was there and why, as well as how macy of detail. In November or December 1961, they felt about it, that Deep in Our Hearts adds Browning and her boyfriend, Georgia Tech stu‐ signifcantly to our understanding of how the civil dent Bill Humphries, heard that SNCC was plan‐ rights movement progressed. ning to test a recent Interstate Commerce Com‐ Such details are also what will make this a mission ruling desegregating all forms of public great book for teaching, particularly because of its transportation that crossed state lines. Four other appeal to today's more conservative students and whites had already volunteered to take a train to white students who may know little and under‐ from to Albany along with four black rid‐ stand less about whites' participation in the civil ers who would sit with them in the white car and rights movement. First, we feel how young these waiting rooms. However, Casey Hayden could not women were when they dedicated themselves to aford to get arrested because she might lose her the struggle. For example, Penny Patch tells us job with the YWCA. "Bill desperately wanted to be that she went south in the summer of 1962 "an the fourth white freedom rider, but it was impos‐ idealistic, intelligent, but very naive eighteen- sible," Browning refects. "If he were arrested, his year-old." She also shows us how true this was by Air Force Reserve Ofcer Training Corps scholar‐ noting that, during her movement years, she ship would be revoked and he would immediately learned not only how to organize, but also how be drafted and sent to Korea for peacekeeping, or "to cook, type, and ... drive a car" (p. 152). to Vietnam." Browning's "white skin made the Al‐ These nine white women were not only bany Freedom Ride half white and half black," so young, they were just as uncertain, just as suscep‐ she volunteered to go. "I followed Casey's instruc‐ tible to peer pressure, and just as likely to come tions and obediently put clean underwear and my into confict with their elders as today's students. toothbrush in my purse. I felt silly and a little Theresa Del Pozzo describes her youthful rebel‐ risque with dainties in my purse and hoped that lion against both the injustice of segregation and nobody would ever know" (pp. 67-68). Because the the narrow worldview of the Italian immigrant ride was planned for a Sunday, Browning also neighborhood where she grew up. Meanwhile, dressed in an olive green corduroy suit from Sue Thrasher suggests her secret exasperation Sears and freshly shined penny loafers. She then when a teacher invited her to a mass meeting or‐ boarded the train with the other seven riders and ganized by the Nashville branch of the Southern Casey Hayden, who was to serve as the "designat‐ Christian Leadership Conference. "Why doesn't ed observer." Hayden's role, like Browning's she leave me alone? Haven't I done enough?" she choice of clothing, is the kind of detail often over‐ whined inwardly, thinking of the opposition she looked in historical treatments of the civil rights had faced for an earlier foray into activism. But movement. As Browning explains, "it was stan‐ she went, unwilling to have someone she admired dard discipline in integration tests to designate think less of her, and that meeting proved to be a one person to stand apart from the group, an ob‐ "dazzling moment of clarity" about the pain and server safe from arrest....The observer often was injustice of segregation (p. 222). For other women the only witness, other than arrested demonstra‐

4 H-Net Reviews it was friends and boyfriends who pulled them Africa in the summer of 1961 after her second into activist circles or helped them to sense that year at Harvard-Radclife, Adams began the three- segregation limited their own freedom and not year international odyssey that would eventually only that of African . And for all of take her south in April 1964. She stayed in Kenya these women, the friendships and support, as well and worked as a teacher after the Operation as the high purpose, they found in the student Crossroads summer program ended--"the only movement's early years were energizing, afrm‐ white woman in the whole country living on the ing, and vital. Several describe their respect and African side of the fence" (p. 300). Then, back in admiration for , the "mother of SNCC" college in the winter of 1962-63, she began dating (p. 345). , Will Campbell, Anne a Ghanian student with whom she would eventu‐ Braden, and a number of other individuals, black ally go to Mexico (in hopes of getting visas for and white, also appear as beloved mentors whose Cuba), Morocco, and Algeria. "It was during this models of interracial fellowship would stand even Mexican period that the FBI frst contacted my fa‐ against the internal political struggles of the free‐ ther about my activities," she writes. "Apparently dom movement's later years. the possibility that two highly visible and success‐ Friends and mentors proved especially im‐ ful Harvard students might be about to go to Cuba portant as these white women's families dis‐ for guerilla training had pushed their red button" owned them or grew distant because of their ac‐ (pp. 307-08). Once in Algeria, Adams and her tivism. Even if they expect the southern women's boyfriend were unable to achieve their ultimate parents to be racists and treat their daughters as goal of volunteering for the Angolan war against "race traitors," today's students may be surprised Portugal. Instead, they faced disillusionment and to learn how deep the opposition of the northern alienation, as well as hepatitis and an unwanted women's parents sometimes ran. Here, Emmie pregnancy. Adams's account of traveling to Schrader Adams's story is likely to be the most Switzerland for an abortion is particularly surprising of all, as readers confront the fact that poignant. her father, the child of German immigrants living Thus, unlike her eight co-authors, Emmie in St. Paul, Minnesota, regularly informed on her Schrader Adams had substantial experience in in‐ activities and turned over her personal letters to ternational and revolutionary circles prior to her the FBI. involvement in the civil rights movement. The Adams's narrative is surprising in other ways black freedom struggle was, for her, a home‐ as well and adds greatly to the overall importance grown version of the liberation movements of this volume. "I lived in Jamaica for twenty sweeping Africa, and it was an ideological com‐ years and was never interviewed or contacted for mitment, rather than any personal experience of any of the books about the Freedom Movement," life under segregation, that compelled her to be‐ she explains at the start. "So this is my one chance come involved. "I saw nothing in America for me to say things I've always wanted to say, to tell sto‐ except joining the struggle against racism," she ries I've always told but never written" (p. 291). writes of the weary young woman who returned The story she writes is of a Minnesota Catholic from Algeria. "College had become irrelevant. I who fnished high school before she ever met a was beyond the pale" (p. 313). black person and who became interested in Africa Although both the foreword and preface of while sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar on Deep in Our Hearts emphasize the diversity of her way back to the U.S. after a summer in these nine women's backgrounds and experi‐ France. Volunteering for Operation Crossroads ences, neither suggests how the profound difer‐

5 H-Net Reviews ences within their stories should reshape the inaccuracies or omissions, what I have written re‐ overall narrative of white women's participation fects the truths of my heart" (p. 129-30). Taking in the movement or, more broadly, the history of their cues from these deeply honest and intimate this generation of Americans. Barbara Ransby's personal essays, historians should both bring preface, in particular, falls back on the more fa‐ their analytical tools to bear and be very grateful miliar story of white southern women's radicaliz‐ for this rich new set of sources. ing experiences. Ransby does make the very good Notes point that, unlike recent studies of whiteness, [1]. Howard Zinn, SNCC: The New Abolition‐ Deep in Our Hearts illustrates "the ways in which ists (Boston: Beacon Press, 1964), 132. white racial identities were, at a particular mo‐ ment and place in time, profoundly informed by a [2]. Recent work in southern history that fo‐ set of explicitly antiracist politics"(emphasis cuses on individual and collective memory in‐ mine). However, she follows this point with a re‐ cludes Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, "'You Must Remem‐ minder that the "dominant culture of the white ber This': Autobiography as Social Critique," Jour‐ South did not intend to produce a Connie Curry, a nal of American History 85 (September 1998), Joan Browning, a Dorothy Dawson Burlage, a Sue 439-65; Jennifer Fleischner, Mastering Slavery: Thrasher, or a Casey Hayden"(p. ix). The essayists Memory, Family, and Identity in Women's Slave who grew up outside the South seem to disappear Narratives (New York: New York University Press, behind the admittedly man-bites-dog story of 1996); and W. Fitzhugh Brundage, ed. Where white women who challenged their native cul‐ These Memories Grow: History, Memory, and ture. Yet these essays make it clear that St. Paul, Southern Identity (Chapel Hill: University of Minnesota, and Bronx, New York, were not very North Carolina Press, 2000). happy about producing an Emmie Schrader [3]. Sara Evans interviewed several of the au‐ Adams or a Theresa Del Pozzo either. thors of Deep in Our Hearts for her infuential Incorporating these nine women's stories into book Personal Politics: The Roots of Women's Lib‐ the historical narratives of the civil rights era will eration in the Civil Rights Movement and the New ultimately be the job of historians. For all of their Left (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979), which em‐ historical self-consciousness, these authors are phasizes the 1964 position paper "Women in the primarily interested in telling their own stories as Movement," as well as Casey Hayden and Mary they understand them personally and emotional‐ King's later memo "Sex and Caste." ly, not as an analysis of America in the 1960s or even of the civil rights movement. Dorothy Daw‐ son Burlage ends her essay with a postscript that explains the diference. A few weeks before her chapter was to go to press, she found some thirty- year-old storage boxes containing her movement papers and correspondence. "Reading some docu‐ ments, I noticed that most things were exactly as I remembered," she writes. "However, it is clear from writing my story that there is the actual his‐ tory of what happened and then there is the past that resides in my memory, which is selective and sometimes may be mistaken. I have told the story as honestly as I can and believe that if there are

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Citation: Jennifer Ritterhouse. Review of Curry, Constance; Browning, Joan C.; Burlage, Dorothy Dawson; Patch, Penny; Pozzo, Theresa Del; Thrasher, Sue; Baker, Elaine DeLott; Adams, Emmie Schrader; Hayden, Casey. Deep in Our Hearts: Nine White Women in the Freedom Movement. H-SAWH, H-Net Reviews. June, 2001.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=5236

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