Who were the people who became most involved in the Civil Rights Movement? Who were its leaders and footsoldiers? How do we even define such roles? Who are the people who have become immortalized as heroes in our memory of the movement? Why? This presentation will explore the multitude of ways that women became involved in the pursuit of racial equality in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. It will also explore the great odds that they faced, not only as African Americans but also as women. I will focus espcially on women’s role in providing the informal leadership, infrastructure, and commitment necessary to maintain the stamina of the postwar civil rights struggle. Finally, we will consider the ways in which the memory of the Civil Rights Movement has erased or misrepresented women’s historic contributions in the struggle and the implications of this for future scholarship on the movement.
Dr. Rebecca Tuuri is an assistant professor of African American and American history at the University of Southern Mississippi. She received a Ph.D. in United States History from Rutgers University in 2012, with a concentration in Women’s and Gender and African American history. Her current manuscript, Careful Crusader: The History of the National Council of Negro Women in Black Freedom Struggle investigates the history of the civil war rights work of the largest black women’s organization in the 1960s and 1970s.
