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.
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]
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]
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]
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)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.
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.
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.
Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) from its earliest days in 1960 until her death in October 1967. She served the organization as an activist in the field and as an administrator in the Atlanta central office. She eventually succeeded James Forman as SNCC's executive secretary and was the only woman ever to serve in this capacity. She was well respected by her SNCC colleagues and others within the movement for her work ethic and dedication to those around her. SNCC Freedom Singer Matthew Jones recalled, "You could feel her power in SNCC on a daily basis". Jack Minnis, director of SNCC's opposition research unit, insisted that people could not fool her. Over the course of her life, she served 100 days in prison for the movement.
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.
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.
African American women played a variety of important roles in the 1954-1968 civil rights movement. They served as leaders, demonstrators, organizers, fundraisers, theorists, formed abolition and self-help societies. They also created and published newspapers, poems, and stories about how they are treated and it paved the way for the modern civil rights movement. They were judged by the color of their skin, as well as being discriminated against society because they are women. African American women faced two struggles, both sexism and racism. Womanism fully encompasses the intersectionality between these two social barriers, thus encompassing African American female involvement in the civil rights movement. African American women led organizations and struggles for their suffrage, anti-lynching laws, full employment and especially against the Jim Crow Laws. They had to constantly fight for equality and needed to have a voice in what they can do in society. Black women served a special role as "bridge leaders," forming connections between those in formal positions of power and political constituents. They were the middle person going back and forth between the two groups and provided information to them. African American women actively participated in community organizing and took on informal leadership roles, making substantial grassroots contributions to the movement. They were essential in energizing the neighborhood, planning activities, and building relationships between neighbors. Black women provided crucial safe spaces for activists to plan, strategize, and discuss important problems by hosting meetings and gatherings in their homes. When coordinating activities was not safe or feasible in public locations, this kind of grassroots involvement was especially crucial. The experiences of Black women during the CRM were more nuanced due to the confluence of gender and race. They had to navigate issues of race and gender, and they occasionally encountered prejudice inside the civil rights movement as well as in larger society. Notwithstanding these obstacles, African American women persevered in their endeavors, making a substantial contribution to the movement's eventual triumph. Their leadership and activity opened doors for later generations and demonstrated how important it is to acknowledge and value the diverse roles that Black women have played in the struggle for racial justice and equality. A major turning point was the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, which followed Rosa Park's bold move of not giving up her bus seat. Several notable African American female activists and organizations emerged from this movement, making essential gains in the civil rights agenda, despite restricted access to power and the Cold War atmosphere pushing for silence within the United States.
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).
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 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.