From Southern Wrongs to Civil Rights: The Memoir of a White Civil Rights Activist

By Sara Parsons

Book Overview

This first-hand account tells the story of turbulent civil rights era Atlanta through the eyes of a white upper-class woman who became an outspoken advocate for integration and racial equality As a privileged white woman who grew up in segregated Atlanta, Sara Mitchell Parsons was an unlikely candidate to become a civil rights agitator. After all, her only contacts with blacks were with those who helped raise her and those who later helped raise her children. As a young woman, she followed the conventional path expected of her, becoming the dutiful wife of a conservative husband, going to the country club, and playing bridge. But unlike many of her peers, Parsons harbored an increasing uneasiness about racial segregation. In a memoir that includes candid diary excerpts, Parsons chronicles her moral awakening. With little support from her husband, she runs for the Atlanta Board of Education on a quietly integrationist platform and, once elected, becomes increasingly outspoken about inequitable school conditions and the slow pace of integration. Her activities bring her into contact with such civil rights leaders as Martin Luther King, Jr., and his wife, Coretta Scott King. For a time, she leads a dual existence, sometimes traveling the great psychic distance from an NAACP meeting on Auburn Avenue to an all-white party in upscale Buckhead. She eventually drops her ladies' clubs, and her deepening involvement in the civil rights movement costs Parsons many friends as well as her first marriage.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0817310266
• ISBN13: 9780817310264
• Release Date: August 2000
• Publisher: University Alabama Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.0" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

I loved this book

Sara Mitchell Parsons was one of the true heroes of the Civil Rights Movement in Atlanta. As a white woman from a privileged background, she took on the racist status-quo of Atlanta as a school board member and constantly and intelligently challenged the city to provide quality education for black and white students alike and to integrate the schools. She knew when it was time to leave her hidebound racist husband and she knew when it was time to leave the Civil Rights Movement though she continued to work for equal education for her entire life. She was a courageous and forceful influence for many young men and women of the 60s in Atlanta. I was one of those.

Collapsing the Cathedral of Bigotry, Southern-Style

I'm standing in the Great Hall of one of Birmingham, Alabama's largest cathedrals, chatting amicably with two nicely-dressed white women who are pillars and patrons of their church. Wonder how it is possible that these two genteel ladies turned out to be so very, very different form their contemporary, Sara Mitchell Parsons. These three women are Privileged White Class people, educated in the ways of the Old South, conversant with all-white country clubs, free from racial persecution of any kind. What made Parsons reverse direction, give up social standing and become an Atlanta civil rights activist in a day and time when to do so was actually a life-endangering act? Why did the other two women remain placid and content in their social roles and blatantly disdainful of all civil rights activities of black people, even to this day? "They (Those Black People) just aren't grateful. They don't appreciate the fact that we (White Folk) gave them good livings and brought them up from the savages they were." This book is a plain-spoken narrative about a white person's journey through the confines of bigotry, racism, intolerance, hatred and concrete-solid Tradition. Parsons comes out on the other side feeling a lot better about herself and a lot less tolerant herself--intolerant toward the status quo of Southern White Bigotry. Take a look at this modest book. It came out at a time when the McWhorter book about Birmingham got lots of well-deserved attention, occluding the release of smaller books like this. But this, too, deserves your notice. It tells a similar story, but without all the spice, lenghthy detail and scholarly overstatement. Both books should be issued together in a slipcase. (For a copy of the entire review of this book, contact me at jimreedbooks.com)

THE MAKING OF AN ACTIVIST

Sara Perry was raised as the typical southern white lady. She was to assume the role of dutiful wife, devoted mother and hostess for her husband's social set. As Sara Mitchell she carried out her role of the southern house-wife which included a lovely home, Negro maid and status in the upper class community of Buckhead in Atlanta, GA. All was going well for this southern white matron but the seeds of discontent stirred in her life. She wanted more out of life than a role. Slowly but surely a change was to occur which would change her life and the fabric of the world in which she grew up. Contained in these pages in the memoir of a woman who had it all but made the step to get involved in the battle for civil rights regardless of the cost. Her battle ground was the Atlanta school board, her church, family and marriage. Caught up in the fervor of the Civil rights movement we see how a woman of privilege made the steps of becoming an activist. Parsons' story is an eye-opener of the role southern white women played in the movement. Her being a part of the affluent class makes her story all the more remarkable due to the pressures she would endure. Her tale is one in which everyone should read to get an understanding of the thoughts and feelings of a woman who put her status at risk. What I find most interesting concerning her tenure on the Atlanta school board are the issues she addresses concerning education in addition to the integration question. The issues she addressed in the 1960s are the same ones with us in the year 2000. You will get an idea about how "concerned" the majority of the board was with education. This dynamic woman broke the rules of convention of her day. She of course is not a saint but an example to follow in having the courage and fortitude to step out for what is right. I highly recommend this as a primary text for those studying education, civil rights, and female empowerment.