Our Separate Ways: Women and the Black Freedom Movement in Durham, North Carolina

386 Pages·2005·23.72 MB·English

by  Christina Greene

r KViWf
4

Our Separate Ways

OUR SEPARATE WAYS
Women and the Black Freedom Movement
in Durham, North Carolina CHRISTINA GREENE
The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill and London
© 2005 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed by Barbara E. Williams
Set in Quadraat and Scala type by BW&A Books, Inc.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book
Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.
Parts of this book have been reprinted with permission in revised form from
the following works: Christina Greene, "'In the Best Interest of the Total Com-
munity'?: Women-in-Action and the Politics of Race and Class in a Southern
Community, i968-1972," Frontiers I6, no. 2/3 (I996): 190-217, University of
Nebraska Press, and "'... The New Negro Ain't Scared No More!': Black
Women's Activism in North Carolina and the Meaning of Brown," in From the
Grass-Roots to the Supreme Court: Brown v.B oard of Education and American Democracy,
edited by Peter Lau (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Greene, Christina, i95i-
Our separate ways : women and the Black freedom movement in Durham,
North Carolina / Christina Greene.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8078-2938-2 (cloth : alk. paper)-ISBN 0-8078-5600-2 (pbk.: alk. paper)
i. Durham (N.C.)-Race relations. 2. African Americans-Civil rights-North
Carolina-Durham-History-2oth century. 3. Civil rights movements-
North Carolina-Durham-History-2oth century. 4. African American
women-North Carolina-Durham-Political activity-History-2oth century.
5.W omen, White-North Carolina-Durham-Political activity-History-
2oth century. I. Title
F264.D9G74 2005
323.II96'0730756563-dc22 2004024382
cloth 09 08 07 06 05 5 4 3 2 1
paper 09 08 07 o6 05 5 4 3 2 i
For Joan
and
For my father

Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations xvii
Introduction i
1 If You Want Anything Done, Get the Women
and the Children: Fighting Jim Crow in the
194os and 1950s 7
2 A Few Still, Small Voices:
Black Freedom and White Allies in the Doldrums 33
3 The Sisters behind the Brothers:
The Durham Movement, i957-1963 63
4 The Uninhibited Voice of the Poor:
African American Women and Neighborhood
Organizing io5
5 Someday .... the Colored and White Will
Stand Together: Organizing Poor Whites i3q
6 I Can't Catch Everybody, but I Can Try:
Black Power Politics, the Boycott, and the
Decline of Neighborhood Organizing i65
7 Visiting Ladies: Interracial Sisterhood
and the Politics of Respectability 195
Conclusion 219
Epilogue 225
Notes 231
Bibliography 317
Index 341