Freedom's Daughters: The Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830 to 1970

THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF THE VITAL ROLE

WOMEN — BOTH BLACK AND WHITE — PLAYED

IN THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

In this groundbreaking and absorbing book, credit finally goes where credit is due — to the bold women who were crucial to the success of the civil rights movement. From the Montgomery bus boycott to the lunch counter sit-ins to the Freedom Rides, Lynne Olson skillfully tells the long-overlooked story of the extraordinary women who were among the most fearless, resourceful, and tenacious leaders of the civil rights movement.

Freedom's Daughters includes portraits of more than sixty women — many until now forgotten and some never before written about — from the key figures (Ida B. Wells, Eleanor Roosevelt, Ella Baker, and Septima Clark, among others) to some of the smaller players who represent the hundreds of women who each came forth to do her own small part and who together ultimately formed the mass movements that made the difference. Freedom's Daughters puts a human face on the civil rights struggle — and shows that that face was often female.

The first and only comprehensive history of the enormous contributions of women--black and white, famous and unknown--to the fight for civil rights in this country. "Freedom's Daughters" spans four generations and introduces more than 60 women, some well-known, others never written about before.

Lynne Olson, who cowrote The Murrow Boys: Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism, lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and daughter.

Contents

Preface

1. "Far More Terrible for Women"

2. "She Has Shaken This Country"

3. "Getting Them Comfortable with Rebellion"

4. Lighting the Fuse

5. "There Had to Be a Stopping Place"

6. "Our Leaders Is Just We Ourself"

7. "She Kept Daring Us to Go Further"

8. "The Most Daring of Our Leaders"

9. "Being White Does Not Answer Your Problems"

10. "She Never Listened to a Word"

11. "We Are Not Going to Take This Anymore"

12. "The Cobwebs Are Moving from My Brain"

13. "I Had Never Heard That Voice Before"

14. "Black and White Together"

15. "A Woman's War"

16. "We Assumed We Were Equal"

17. "We Can't Deal with Her"

18. Standing in the Minefield

19. "We Didn't Come All This Way for No Two Seats"

20. "This Inevitable, Horrible Greek Tragedy"

21. The "Woman Question"

22. "We Were Asked to Deny a Part of Ourselves"

23. "We Got to Keep Moving"

Epilogue

Abbreviations for Sources

Endnotes

Bibliography

Acknowledgments

Index