Deep in Our Hearts Nine White Women in the Freedom Movement

Deep in Our Hearts Nine White Women in the Freedom Movement Review by Tiffany Woodmansee

Deep in Our Hearts Nine White Women in the Freedom Movement was written by nine different women whose names are Constance Curry, Joan C. Browning, Dorothy Burlage, Penny Patch, Theresa Del Pozzo, Sue Thrasher, Elaine Baker, Emmie Adams, and Casey Hayden. This book is basically a first hand account of these nine women's part in the Southern Freedom Movement. They were all college students in their sophomore or junior year and they were looking to make a change in history. They all either came from a wealthy background, or from a low middle class to average middle class background.
In whole I found this book to be interesting and very adventurous. Now one might say why? And I would answer it's interesting that these women would risk their lives for something they weren't sure would ever change, and adventurous because all of these accounts have so much action from going behind their parents back to join this movement to actually participating in the sit INS and picketing. I believe they all came together to write this book to share with everyone their stories of what really happened behind the scenes of this movement so that we can see the types of things they had to go through just so that the minority could be equal.
This book is split up into 9 chapters and each chapter covers a different women's experience. I will be a sharing with you the story of Sue Thrasher because it was my favorite story from this book.
Sue Thrasher grew up in Savanna, Tennessee and came from a mostly farming family. Her fathers dream was to own his own land and that's what he ended up doing. When she was six is when she started school and started to show her independence by walking home by herself from school. Her family wasn't against the African Americans but they grid not to stir up much trouble with neighbors such as one day when her father stated to the neighbor he supported the desegregation of the schools. Her parents farmed with a nice black man who lived near and they also fished in a river alongside other black families.
Sue entered high school in 1955, and in her senior year of high school she became the schools newspaper editor. With this role she attained a mentor who worked for the local newspaper, but not too long after he came out with a bad article about MLK Jr. And it changed her mind about him forever. At first she wanted to be just like her sister, get married, have children, and work but when she saw that her sister started working at the same shoe company as her mother she knew she had to get out of there. So she went to college and that's when all of her involvement in the movement began. At first she was scared to actively participate in such things as sit INS and pickets but the day of the Birmingham church bombing is when she changed her mind about actively participating. From then on her life was all about letting history be known and she did a great job at that.
Sue was a very wise young woman and the one quote that stood out in my mind is what she ended her chapter with, " All of you are very important part of my life. My circle of friends and companeros now includes people from around the world. But all the hands I have held in the circle, yours were the ones that held mine at the most important time. Your circle is the one that gave me the strength, confidence, commitment, and joy.