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Moving chronologically from the colonial period to the present,
this collection of seventeen biographical essays provides a window
into the social, cultural, and geographic milieu of women's lives
in the state. Within the context of the historical forces that have
shaped Louisiana, the contributors look at ways in which the women
they profile either abided by prevailing gender norms or negotiated
new models of behaviour for themselves and other women. Louisiana
Women concludes with an essay that examines women's active
responses to problems that emerged in New Orleans after Hurricane
Katrina. The women whose absorbing life stories are collected here
include Marie Therese Coincoin, who was born a slave but later
became a successful entrepreneur, and Oretha Castle Haley, civil
rights activist and leader of the New Orleans chapter of CORE. From
such well-known figures as author Kate Chopin and Voudou priestess
Marie Laveau, to lesser known women such as Cajun musician Cleoma
Breaux Falcon, this volume reveals a compelling cross section of
historical figures. The women profiled vary by race, class,
political affiliation, and religious persuasion, but they all share
an unusual grit and determination that allowed them to turn trying
circumstances into opportunity. Lively yet rigorous, these essays
introduce readers to the courageous, dedicated, and inventive women
who have been an essential part of Louisiana's history.
Literature on the civil rights movement has long highlighted the
leadership of ministerial men and young black revolutionaries, such
as Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokely Carmichael, and
Malcolm X. Recent studies have begun to explore female
participation in the struggle for racial justice, but women
continue to be relegated to the margins of civil rights history. In
Our Minds on Freedom, Shannon Frystak explores the organizational
and leadership roles female civil rights activists in Louisiana
played from the 1920s to the 1960s. She highlights a diverse group
of courageous women who fought alongside their brothers and
fathers, uncles and cousins, to achieve a more racially just
Louisiana. From the Depression through World War II and the postwar
years, Frystak shows, black women in Louisiana joined and led local
unions and civil rights organizations, agitating for voting rights
and equal treatment in the public arena, in employment, and in
admission to the state's institutions of higher learning. At the
same time, black and white women began to find common ground in
organizations such as the YWCA, the NAACP, and the National Urban
League. Frystak explores how women of both races worked together to
organize the 1953 Baton Rouge bus boycott, which served as
inspiration for the more famous Montgomery bus boycott two years
later; to alter the system of unequal education throughout the
state; and to integrate New Orleans schools after the 1954 Brown
decision. In the early 1960s, a new generation of female activists
joined their older counterparts to work with the NAACP, the
Congress of Racial Equality, and a number of local grassroots civil
rights organizations. Frystak vividly describes the very real
dangers they faced canvassing for voter registration in Louisiana's
rural areas, teaching in Freedom Schools, and hosting out-of-town
civil rights workers in their homes. As Frystak shows, the civil
rights movement allowed women to step out of their prescribed roles
as wives, mothers, and daughters and become significant actors,
indeed leaders, in a social-change structure largely dominated by
men. Our Minds on Freedom is a welcome addition to the literature
of the civil rights movement and will intrigue those interested in
African American history, women's history, Louisiana, or the U.S.
South.
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