Martha Prescod Norman Noonan

Last updated

Martha Prescod Norman Noonan was a civil rights activist who is known for her work within the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and co-editing a 2012 book Hands on theFreedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC.

Contents

Early life and education

Noonan was born on February 25, 1945 [1] in Providence, Rhode Island where she was raised as one of the only black students at the predominantly white institutions she attended. [2] Her parents were active in the Progressive Party, [3] : 45  and her father was once the state chairman of the party. [4] She graduated from the University of Michigan in December 1964, [1] and has a master's degree from Wayne State University where she studied history. [5] Noonan completed coursework for a PhD at the University of Michigan. [5]

Civil rights activism

Soon after arriving at Michigan, Noonan joined VOICE, a chapter of Students for a Democratic Society, [2] and she raised funds for Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) by selling copies of a documentary record made about the Albany Movement. [1] When she heard presentations by Curtis Hayes and Tom Hayden [3] : 45  she was "almost giddy with the idea that someone my age could take action that might change the overall racial situation in the United States”. [2] From 1962 to 1963, Martha organized a Friends of SNCC group in Ann Arbor, [3] : 45  which was providing support for the student activists in the south. [1] In 1963 at the age of 18, Noonan first went to the American south. [6] She ended up in Albany, Georgia where she noted she "was scared the whole time I was there”. [4] By 1965 Noonan deliberately was eating in newly integrated places, such as a Holiday Inn in Selma, Alabama, where she remained calm while keeping her right to eat in such institutions. [7] Noonan crossed paths with other civil rights activists including Prathia Hall [8] and Stokely Carmichael. [9]

Later life

Noonan married Silas Norman in 1967 and they had one son. [2] She taught classes on African American history at the University of Michigan, the University of Toledo, and Wayne State University. [4] In 2012, Noonan co-edited the book Hands on theFreedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC which was reviewed by The Women's Review of Books, [10] The Journal of African American History , [11] and the Journal of American Ethnic History. [12]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terrell County, Georgia</span> County in Georgia, United States

Terrell County is a county located in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,185. The county seat is Dawson. Terrell County is included in the Albany, GA metropolitan statistical area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bernice Johnson Reagon</span> Musical artist

Bernice Johnson Reagon is a song leader, composer, scholar, and social activist, who in the early 1960s was a founding member of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee's (SNCC) Freedom Singers in the Albany Movement in Georgia. In 1973, she founded the all-black female a cappella ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock, based in Washington, D.C. Reagon, along with other members of the SNCC Freedom Singers, realized the power of collective singing to unify the disparate groups who began to work together in the 1964 Freedom Summer protests in the South.

"After a song", Reagon recalled, "the differences between us were not so great. Somehow, making a song required an expression of that which was common to us all.... This music was like an instrument, like holding a tool in your hand."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee</span> Activist organization during the US civil rights movement

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Nashville, Tennessee, the Committee sought to coordinate and assist direct-action challenges to the civic segregation and political exclusion of African Americans. From 1962, with the support of the Voter Education Project, SNCC committed to the registration and mobilization of black voters in the Deep South. Affiliates such as the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization in Alabama also worked to increase the pressure on federal and state government to enforce constitutional protections.

Gloria Richardson Dandridge was an American civil rights activist best known as the leader of the Cambridge movement, a civil rights action in the early 1960s in Cambridge, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore. Recognized as a major figure in the Civil Rights Movement, she was one of the signatories to "The Treaty of Cambridge", signed in July 1963 with Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and state and local officials. It was an effort at reconciliation and commitment to change after a riot the month before.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doris Derby</span> American photographer (1939–2022)

Doris Adelaide Derby was an American activist and documentary photographer. She was the adjunct associate professor of anthropology at Georgia State University and the founding director of their Office of African-American Student Services and Programs. She was active in the Mississippi civil rights movement, and her work discusses the themes of race and African-American identity. She was a working member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and co-founder of the Free Southern Theater. Her photography has been exhibited internationally. Two of her photographs were published in Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC, to which she also contributed an essay about her experiences in the Mississippi civil rights movement.

The Albany Movement was a desegregation and voters' rights coalition formed in Albany, Georgia, in November 1961. This movement was founded by local black leaders and ministers, as well as members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The groups were assisted by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). It was meant to draw attention to the brutally enforced racial segregation practices in Southwest Georgia. However, many leaders in SNCC were fundamentally opposed to King and the SCLC's involvement. They felt that a more democratic approach aimed at long-term solutions was preferable for the area other than King's tendency towards short-term, authoritatively-run organizing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Unita Blackwell</span> American civil rights activist (1933–2019)

Unita Zelma Blackwell was an American civil rights activist who was the first African-American woman to be elected mayor in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Blackwell was a project director for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and helped organize voter drives for African Americans across Mississippi. She was also a founder of the US–China Peoples Friendship Association, a group dedicated to promoting cultural exchange between the United States and China. She also served as an advisor to six US presidents: Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton.

Prathia Laura Ann Hall Wynn was an American leader and activist in the Civil Rights Movement, a womanist theologian, and ethicist. She was the key inspiration for Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judy Richardson</span> American documentary filmmaker and civil rights activist

Judy Richardson is an American documentary filmmaker and civil rights activist. She was Distinguished Visiting Lecturer of Africana Studies at Brown University.

Fay D. Bellamy Powell was an African-American civil rights activist.

Clara Arena Brawner was the only African-American woman physician in Memphis, Tennessee, in the mid-1950s.

Faith Holsaert is an American educator and activist during the Civil Rights Movement.

Robert "Bob" Mants, Jr. was an American civil rights activist, serving as a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Mants moved to Lowndes County, working for civil rights for the remainder of his life. Lowndes County contained the majority of the distance covered by the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march, and was then notorious for its racist violence.

McCree L. Harris was an American educator and political activist leader. Harris worked at the all-Black Monroe Comprehensive High School, where she taught Latin, French, and Social Studies. She is best known for her participation with the Freedom Singers and for encouraging her students' involvement in the Civil Rights Movement through voter registration marches and by leading groups of students to downtown Albany, Georgia, after school hours to test desegregation rulings at local stores and movie theaters.

The Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO), also known as the Lowndes County Freedom Party (LCFP) or Black Panther party, was an American political party founded during 1965 in Lowndes County, Alabama. The independent third party was formed by local African-American citizens led by John Hulett, and by staff members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) under the leadership of Stokely Carmichael.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Zellner</span> American human rights activist and feminist

Dorothy "Dottie" Miller Zellner is an American human rights activist, feminist, editor, lecturer, and writer. A veteran of the 1960s civil rights movement, she served as a recruiter for the Freedom Summer project and was co-editor of Student Voice, the student newsletter of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. She is active in the Palestinian solidarity movement.

Muriel Tillinghast is an American civil rights activist and former Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) field secretary. Her efforts include volunteering for the Freedom Summer Project in Mississippi where she helped start the famed 1964 Freedom School and led Mississippi's Council of Federated Organizations (COFO).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Zellner</span> American civil rights activist

John Robert Zellner is an American civil rights activist. He graduated from Huntingdon College in 1961 and that year became a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) as its first white field secretary. Zellner was involved in numerous civil rights efforts, including nonviolence workshops at Talladega College, protests for integration in Danville, Virginia, and organizing Freedom Schools in Greenwood, Mississippi, in 1964. He also investigated the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner that summer.

Gwendolyn Marie Patton was a prominent civil rights activist and educator. Patton’s first steps into the civil rights movement were with the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) where she helped African Americans register to vote with her grandparents. During this time, she also participated in the Montgomery bus boycott. After her time with the MIA, Patton could be seen working with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at Tuskegee University and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization. Following her time at Tuskegee University, she assisted in establishing both anti-war and human rights organizations that furthermore supported the feminist and Black Power movements, as well as communism, the Cuban Revolution, and marxism. In the 1984 presidential debates, she started her political career as a delegate for Jesse Jackson’s campaign. Then in 1986 as a candidate for Alabama legislature, and finally in 1992 in the U.S. Senate. Patton was also a historian, which helped her to construct the H. Councill Trenholm State Technical College, which is now called the Trenholm State Community College.

Debbie Amis Bell American civil rights activist

Debbie Amis Bell was an American Civil Rights activist, SNCC member, and active associate of the Communist Party USA. Bell was a Field Organizer for the SNCC. She is most well known for her work within schools, churches, her community, and Black owned businesses. Bell was also the head of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. Much of her work was carried out in Atlanta, Georgia. However, she was very active in her home state of Pennsylvania as well.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Martha Prescod (Norman)". SNCC Digital Gateway. Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Prescod Norman Noonan, Martha (2010). Captured by the Movement," Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC. pp. 483–503.
  3. 1 2 3 Rebellion in Black and white : southern student activism in the 1960s. Internet Archive. Baltimore : The Johns Hopkins University Press. 2013. ISBN   978-1-4214-0849-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. 1 2 3 "Martha Prescod Norman Noonan oral history interview conducted by John Dittmer in Cockeysville, Maryland, 2013 March 18". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2021-05-03.
  5. 1 2 "Fighting for Our Rights: 2019 MLK Day Symposium Features Civil Rights Veterans | U-M LSA History". lsa.umich.edu. Retrieved 2022-04-17.
  6. ↑ Spratling, Cassandra (2011-02-27). "A decision to make a difference". Detroit Free Press. p. 24. Retrieved 2022-03-23.
  7. ↑ Wallach, Jennifer Jensen (2018-11-13). Every Nation Has Its Dish: Black Bodies and Black Food in Twentieth-Century America. UNC Press Books. p. 160. ISBN   978-1-4696-4522-3.
  8. ↑ Pace, Courtney (2019-06-15). Freedom Faith: The Womanist Vision of Prathia Hall. University of Georgia Press. ISBN   978-0-8203-5506-1.
  9. ↑ Joseph, Peniel E. (2014-03-04). Stokely: A Life. Basic Books. ISBN   978-0-465-01363-0.
  10. ↑ Aptheker, Bettina (2011). "Freedom's Architects". The Women's Review of Books; Wellesley. 28 (4): 3.
  11. ↑ Collins, Ed (2012). "Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC". The Journal of African American History. 97 (3): 354. doi:10.5323/jafriamerhist.97.3.0354.
  12. ↑ Span, Christopher M. (2013). "Review of Hands on the Freedom Plow: Personal Accounts by Women in SNCC, Faith S. Holsaert, Martha Prescod Norman Noonan, Judy Richardson, Betty Garman Robinson, Jean Smith Young, and Dorothy M. Zellner". Journal of American Ethnic History. 32 (4): 88–89. doi:10.5406/jamerethnhist.32.4.0088. ISSN   0278-5927. JSTOR   10.5406/jamerethnhist.32.4.0088.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.