Social and Political Groups - Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project

Rose Norman: Finding Lesbian Community in Alabama

Rose Norman, author, grew up in rural Alabama during the civil rights era. She finally found lesbian culture when she was forty, and it changed her life forever for the better.

Posted on January 22, 2024 Posted in Lesbian Land Groups, Social and Political Groups, Spirituality and Religion Tagged with Aggies, Autobiographies of American women writers in the 19th century, Baptist church, Betty Clemens, Black Womens Autobiography, Bloody Lowndes, British literature, civil rights activism, College Station, Coretta Scott King, Corp of Cadets, director of Business and Technical Writing program, dissertation, DISTAR Direct Instruction Reading Intervention PrograM, English, english composition, feminist approaches to literature, feminist criticism, Fort Deposit, Fort Deposit Academy, fort Deposit Elementary, Fortex, Fun with Quarantina, George Wallace, Haneyville, HBCU Historically Black College or University, Head Start, Huntsville Alabama, Huntsville Feminist Chorus, IBM Selectric typewriter, in store credit, Joanne Braxton, Job Corps, Jonathan Daniels, Judson College, Justine Shrider, Knoxville Tennessee, Literary London, Lowndes County Alabama, Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power PBS, Lowndes County Training School, LydiaBetty Giardini, Marion Alabama, McGovern, Merril Mushroom, Nancy finley, National Television, NOW National Organization for Women, pajama factory, Pam Siegler, privileged, racist, Renaissance drama, Rock Hill South Carolina, Rose Norman, Royal Shakespeare Company, Sacred Heart Monastery Cullman Alabama, Sandra Carpenter, segregated, Sherry Mercieca, Sister Maurus, SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, South Carolina, Southern Lesbian Feminist Activist Herstory Project, step sings, Stratford, teachers aide, teaching assistant, tech writer, tenure track job, Texan, Texas A&M, Tom Coleman, Unitarian Universalist Church, University of Alabama, University of Tennessee, Viola Liuzzo, violence, Virginia Woolf seminar, Winthrop College, women in American History, Women in European History, Women Spirit Rising, womens college, Womens Getaway Weekend retreat at Sacred Heart

Joan P. Garner: Fostering Social Change

Interview by telephone by Rose Norman on April 12, 2013 Rose Norman: What made you a social justice activist? Mandy Carter talked about getting turned on by an American Friends Service Committee speaker in high school. What was your “aha” moment? Joan Garner: I grew up in Washington, D.C., during the 1950s and 1960s, the height of the civil rights movement. I was in the eleventh grade when Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. That event was the aha for me. That very weekend, I was attending the annual conference of my high school sorority. Girls from several surrounding states were meeting in Washington, D.C., the weekend of April 4, at the Washington Hilton Hotel. Dr. King was assassinated, and a curfew was put on the city. We couldn’t leave the hotel. We were about 150 African American girls, and the rest of the hotel was completely white, except for some of the maids and other service staff. We were petrified about the assassination and the curfew; and we didn’t know what was happening. We could look out of our hotel window and see U Street starting to burn. Our sponsors decided …

Joan P. Garner: Fostering Social Change Read more »

Posted on December 15, 2023 Posted in Social and Political Groups Tagged with advocacy, African American lesbian woman, Atlanta, Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, civil rights movement, Creating Change conference, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, first Black mayor of Atlanta, Fund for Southern Communities, Funding Exchange Network, Human Rights Campaign, Jewell Gomez, Joan Garner, lesbian and gay movement, lesbian feminists, Mab Segrest, Mandy Carter, Mayor Maynard Jackson, North Carolina, out Black radical dykes, Pam McMichael, Simone de Beauvoir, Sinister Wisdom, social justice, SONG, South Carolina Georgia, Southerners on New Ground, Suzanne Pharr, Washington DC, Washington Hilton Hotel, women’s movement

The Pagoda: A Lesbian Community by the Sea–Interview with the Book’s Author, Rose Norman

The Pagoda was a lesbian residential community and cultural center on the beach near St. Augustine, Florida, from 1977 to 1999. Rose Norman interviewed founders, residents, and guests for the story of how it came to be and how it lasted so long.

Lissa LeGrand and Magnolia Productions: Building Lesbian Community Through Music and the Arts in Birmingham, Alabama

My environmental activist side has never gone away. It’s just that for a number of years, feminist activism took precedence. I feel as if I’m coming home now, coming back these last fifteen years or so, to farming, studying, research, and growing things.

Category: Social and Political Groups

Rose Norman: Finding Lesbian Community in Alabama

Joan P. Garner: Fostering Social Change

The Pagoda: A Lesbian Community by the Sea–Interview with the Book’s Author, Rose Norman

Lissa LeGrand and Magnolia Productions: Building Lesbian Community Through Music and the Arts in Birmingham, Alabama