Until There Is Justice: The Life of Anna Arnold Hedgeman

by Jennifer Scanlon

Overview

A demanding feminist, devout Christian, and savvy grassroots civil rights organizer, Anna Arnold Hedgeman played a key role in over half a century of social justice initiatives. Like many of her colleagues, including A. Philip Randolph, Betty Friedan, and Martin Luther King, Jr., Hedgeman ought to be a household name, but until now has received only a fraction of the attention she deserves.

In Until There Is Justice, author Jennifer Scanlon presents the first-ever biography of Hedgeman. Through a commitment to faith-based activism, civil rights, and feminism, Hedgeman participated in and led some of the 20th century's most important developments, including advances in education, public health, politics, and workplace justice. Simultaneously a dignified woman and scrappy freedom fighter, Hedgeman's life upends conventional understandings of many aspects of the civil rights and feminist movements. She worked as a teacher, lobbyist, politician, social worker, and activist, often crafting and implementing policy behind the scenes. Although she repeatedly found herself a woman among men, a black American among whites, and a secular Christian among clergy, she maintained her conflicting identities and worked alongside others to forge a common humanity.

From helping black and Puerto Rican Americans achieve critical civil service employment in New York City during the Great Depression to orchestrating white religious Americans' participation in the 1963 March on Washington, Hedgeman's contributions transcend gender, racial, and religious boundaries. Engaging and profoundly inspiring, Scanlon's biography paints a compelling portrait of one of the most remarkable yet understudied civil rights leaders of our time. Until There Is Justice is a must-read for anyone with a passion for history, biography, and civil rights.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190248598
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/17/2016
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Jennifer Scanlon is William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at Bowdoin College. She is the author of Bad Girls Go Everywhere: The Life of Helen Gurley Brown.

Table of Contents

Prologue: A Purposeful Life
1. A Midwestern Childhood
2. Education: The First Measure of Independence
3. Teaching in the Segregated South
4. Heading North to Spread the Word: The YWCA Years
5. Harlem and Brooklyn in the Great Depression
6. World War II: If Ever There Were a Time for Racial Justice
7. Fighting for Fair Employment, Fighting for Truman
8. "New World Citizen": Developing a National Portfolio, an International Consciousness, and an FBI File
9. Running for Political Office, Securing a Spot in City Hall
10. " A Burr in the Saddle": Anna Arnold Hedgeman, White Protestants, and the March on Washington
11. The 'Double Handicap' of Sex and Race: The March on Washington
12. Religious Activism for Racial Justice: The Commission on Religion and Race
13. Black Power, White Power, Woman Power, Christian Power
14. Refusing Retirement: The Hedgeman Consultant Service
Epilogue: Fighting for Heaven, Right Here on Earth: The Legacies

Editorial Reviews

03/15/2016
Anna Arnold Hedgeman (1899–1990) was extremely influential to both the civil rights and women's rights movements. Inspired by her Christian beliefs, Hedgeman focused her civil rights efforts on the church, arguing that the teachings of the Scriptures are expressly against racism. Although the activist is largely unknown today, she was heavily involved in the 1963 March on Washington and most of the major civil rights groups over the years, along with being one of the founding leaders of the National Organization for Women (NOW). Scanlon (interim dean for academic affairs, Bowdoin Coll.; Bad Girls Go Everywhere) provides excellent in-depth documentation in this first biography to be written about Hedgeman. The author documents her subject's life beginning with Hedgeman's early formative years in a small but integrated town in Anoka, MN, and leading up to her death. VERDICT Though academic in tone, Scanlon's account would be a beneficial resource for anyone interested in noteworthy civil rights leaders and a welcome addition to high school or college libraries.—Stacy Shaw, Orange, CA

Library Journal

"Jennifer Scanlon illumines Hedgeman's feminist contributions, showing that for Hedgeman and her colleagues, issues of race and sex were never separate. A biography of Hedgeman was long overdue, and Scanlon's work confirms that Hedgeman has much to teach us today. Hedgeman's decades-long commitment to coalition building anticipates the kinds of political organizing needed today. Furthermore, Hedgeman was notable for her willingness to listen and learn from younger Black Power activists, and she encouraged her colleagues to do the same."—Christian Century

"This powerful and poignant book lays bare the extraordinary courage and wisdom of a grand freedom fighter usually overlooked-Anna Arnold Hedgeman. Don't miss it!"—Cornel West

"Anna Arnold Hedgeman has long been excluded from positive credit in important civil rights conversations, though she was definitely critical to The Dream. In Jennifer Scanlon's important book, Hedgeman is finally receiving her due."—Nikki Giovanni, writer, commentator, activist, and educator

"Anna Arnold Hedgeman's life and work exemplify the often ignored interweaving of civil rights, faith-based activism, and feminism in what scholars are coming to see as a long and broad civil rights movement that encompassed many arenas of struggle. By showing how Hedgeman mediated between white religious leaders and black civil rights activists, interracialism and black power, and issues of race and gender, Scanlon reshapes our understanding of the civil rights movement's leadership and legacies. Until There Is Justice is a moving, insightful, and truly necessary book, one that illuminates inexplicably ignored aspects of our common history."—Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Julia Cherry Spruill Professor Emerita of History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"Scanlon provides excellent in-depth documentation in this first biography to be written about Hedgeman."—Library Journal

"Scanlon's splendid study not only recovers Hedgeman's important career but also compels readers to rethink biases in history that exclude women's deeds from the historical narrative."—CHOICE

"Scanlon's meticulously researched and eloquently written account of Hedgeman's life is more than a biography; it serves as a narrative account of the twentieth-century black freedom struggle. Finally, with Until There Is Justice, [Anna Arnold Hedgeman's] story receives the intellectual attention it deserves."—Journal of African American History

"Jennifer Scanlon's biography of the African-American activist Anna Arnold Hedgeman, who died in 1990, is long overdue. This biography presents readers with a puzzle: How did a naïve girl, growing up in the only African-American family in a small white town, develop such an inclusive understanding of justice?"—New York Times

"As Scanlon astutely points out in Until There Is Justice, Hedgeman's contributions to the Civil Rights Movement were obscured by the achievements of her male counterparts-A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King, among others. Scanlon's monograph allows us to rethink the ways in which we include women of color in the history of the Long Civil Rights Movement in a manner that is not simply contributory, but transformative and substantial."—Reviews in American History

"A biography of Hedgeman is well overdue; like Ella Baker, Pauli Murray, and countless other African American women, Hedgeman has remained largely invisible despite her crucial role in the long civil rights movement. Jennifer Scanlon captures the historical significance of Hedgeman's shifting, complex career and offers important new insights into American politics across the twentieth century."—Journal of American History

From the Publisher