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Jul 8, 2017 · It was an extraordinary pleasure to interview Suzanne at the modest Little Rock home that she shares with her partner Renee, and their sweet pup Ted. Afterwards, our OUTWORDS team took a short drive to Central High School, where in 1957 the Little Rock Nine endured vicious racial hatred in a quest for an educational equality.
Sep 6, 2022 · Check out Little Rock resident Suzanne Pharr among The Bitter Southerner’s “six lesbian feminist writers living in the South” — women whose “work reimagined the South as a vibrant place where...
- Stephanie Smittle
- What Made Song Possible
- And Then There Were Six
- Founders Were Geographically Dispersed
- Lifetime Activists Made Song
- What They Did After Song
- What Made Song Endure
- The Six Song Founders
- Song on The Web
Pam McMichael says that several things came together at Creating Change to make SONG possible: Mab Segrest adds this about her role in that Creating Change conference:
Joan Garnerwas added to their nascent group in January 1994. They were meeting in Garner’s Atlanta, Georgia, home, laying the groundwork and making decisions about how to set up their new organization. Because of the importance of intersectionality, it was critical to them to set up shared leadership between races. Thus, there would always be two c...
The six founders lived in four Southern states. Mandy Carter, originally from New York, and Mab Segrest, originally from Alabama, lived in Durham, North Carolina. Suzanne Pharr, originally from rural Georgia, was in Little Rock, Arkansa. Pam McMichael, who grew up in rural Kentucky, was in Louisville, Kentucky. Joan Garner, originally from Washingt...
These six lesbians had already accomplished a lot through social justice activism. Mandy Carter came from the War Resisters League. In 1990, Carter was campaign manager for a North Carolina PAC that attempted to defeat Senator Jesse Helms. Highly skilled in political activism, she had also been a producer of Rhythm Fest, a women’s music festival in...
Five of the six SONG cofounders are still alive and still politically active as of 2022. Sadly, Joan Garner died of breast cancer in 2017, age 65, while still serving as a Fulton County Commissioner. The five others are retired or semi-retired from their professional jobs; but a lesbian-feminist activist never truly retires. Mandy Carter founded th...
In 2023, SONG celebrates its thirtieth anniversary (https://southernersonnewground.org/). Today, SONG remains a strong, intersectional organization with chapters in several Southern cities. They publish a blog in both English and Spanish; and they have several working groups. In 2019, SONG had revenue of $3.7 million, primarily from foundations and...
Footnotes Unless noted, quotations are from interviews. Rose Norman interviewed five SONG cofounders by phone, separately, in 2013. Lorraine Fontana interviewed Pat Hussain in person in 2013. Phyllis Free synthesized the six, long interviews into one composite interview for Sinister Wisdom, “Southerners on New Ground (SONG): 1993-Present,” Sinister...
Influence Watch (as of 2017), https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/southerners-on-new-ground/ SONG End of Year Report (December 2019), https://southernersonnewground.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/EOY-Report-2019-English-1.pdf SONG on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/ignitekindred SONG membership form online, https://database.southernersonne...
Suzanne Pharr is a southern queer feminist and anti-racist organizer. She founded the Women’s Project in Arkansas in 1981, was a co-founder of Southerners on New Ground in 1993, and was director of the Highlander Center from 1999 to 2004.
Suzanne Pharr, Southern queer feminist and anti-racist organizer and strategist, approaches social justice work through understanding oppressions as both systemic and intersectional in their makeup and impact and then developing strategies that are inclusive of all affected.
Movement Connections. Image : Pharr and Mrs. Daisy Bates, Women’s Project in Little Rock, AR, 1993. ... 1980-2021 Suzanne Pharr ...
The collection includes writings, speeches, correspondence, interviews, workshops, published books, book drafts and production materials, articles related to her research, publicity about her work, and journals documenting her daily work.
