Freedom’s Daughters: A book review

Joy E. Aulph

Lynne Olson’s innovative book “Freedom’s Daughters: The Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830 to 1970,” researches women and the depth to which they contributed to the Civil Rights movement. Olson’s book includes biographical information of more than 60 women and while it addresses the earliest of Civil Rights leaders beginning during the Slave Trade, its attention shifts considerably to the modern Civil Rights of the 1960s and concludes in 1970.

The author’s approach to the book is a social history of the women involved in the Civil Rights movements. It includes information about well known activist as well as lesser known advocates. Names of some of these brave women researched include: Sojourner Truth, Pauli Murray, Barbara Johns, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rosa Parks, Viola Liuzzo, Ida B. Wells, Diane Nash, Virgina Durr, The Grimke Sisters, Harriet Tubman, Septima Clark, Ella Baker, Penny Patch, Casey Hayden, and Mary King. Attention was paid to both Aftrican-American women as well as Indo-European-American women.

While it may be somewhat expected that the book may have a “feminist” perspective it was still surprising when criticism was given male leaders including Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK). More than once the book included accounts of Civil Rights workers dreading the arrival of MLK, as they believed it would draw attention away from the purpose of the campaign, and only highlight that of MLK’s agenda. His arrival in a given hot zone would turn the situation into what many women described as a three-ring circus, which focused more on his speeches than on the real issues, or the real work at hand. Many women were also unhappy with the double standard they saw in MLK, when he would say that he would not post bail until a particular battle was won, but then would walk out of jail when small concessions were made. But while the Olson repeatedly showed how the men fought over “face time” in front of the camera, it also acknowledged that women allowed this to take place, as most women obeyed the roles of society at the time. Women were given secretarial jobs and behind the scenes work, while the men were the ones receiving all the glory. Olson’s book shows how women’s roles were shortchanged, but it repeatedly gives credence to the reality that the women were willing to take the backseat and let men to take the lead, since the feminist movement had no yet occurred.

The struggles within the different Civil Rights Organizations were also given considerable coverage. Olson delves into the struggles between race and gender lines within the Student Nonviolet Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Particularly, during the Freedom Summer of 1964, Olson attempts to detangle the web of reasons behind the misunderstandings between the different race and gender conflicts. Although SNCC members wanted help from northern students, it infuriated many that not until suburban students arrived was any news coverage be given to their plight. Many white female workers wanted to be on the front line but could not understand the dangers associated with that task, while black students could not understand why someone would want to put themselves in such danger. Such misunderstandings would almost destroy the movement they were supporting.

Olson includes 20 pages of footnotes, broken down by chapter. The use of the footnotes at the end of the book is most appropriate. If they were used within each page, the vast amount of footnotes would have interfered with the reader’s flow and pacing. There is also a five page bibliography and index that make for finding sections on particular people, groups or events easy to do. The author uses an array of references including many oral histories. While the author included a list of abbreviations for the sources, a list of abbreviation of the various Civil Rights groups would have been helpful in keeping track of them throughout the book. Although the beginning of each chapter includes a photograph of one of the women in the book, additional photos or illustrations of women would have been considerate in helping the reader to keep them all straight.

Prior to writing her first book Olson was a reporter for the Associated Press and was based in Mascow, from1972 through 1974. Upon returning to the United States Olson covered national politics and eventually was a White House reporter, until she decided to become a freelance writer in 1981. Olson has penned other books including “Citizens of London: The Americans Who Stood with Britain in Its Darkest, Finest Hour” and “Troublesome Young Men: The Rebels Who Brought Churchill to Power and Helped Save England”. She has also co-authored two books with her husband Stanley Cloud, that include “A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron: Forgotten Heroes of World War II” and “The Murrow Boys: Pioneers in the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism”.

Several book reviews, both scholarly and commercial, note this book as “groundbreaking” which lead one to believe that it is the first of its nature. Although there are surely many other books about individual Civil Rights women, this book is set apart because it covers over 60 women from the early period of Sojourner Truth’s times, to the modern Civil Rights movement with Fannie Lou Hamer. The book encourages other researchers to take up the torch and delve into deeper research about these astounding women.

While the book is over 400 pages, Olson’s style and attention to detail make it an easy read for scholars, anyone interested in learning about historical women, or a novice historian looking for a different perspective of the Civil Rights Movement. Her detail to the struggles endured during the Freedom Rides and Freedom Summer will keep the reader turning pages late into the night. The comprehensive nature of the book allows it to stand alone, but gives the reader the desire to find more books about the women contained in the pages.