Soon We Will Not Cry: The Liberation of Ruby Doris Smith Robinson (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Soon We Will Not Cry:The Liberation of Ruby Doris Smith Robinson Candie Carawan (bio) Soon We Will Not Cry:The Liberation of Ruby Doris Smith Robinson by Cynthia Griggs Fleming. Lantham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1998, 224 pp., $24.95 hardcover. Ruby Doris Smith Robinson was a force in the Civil Rights Movement, especially in the early-1960s when young people dropped out of school to challenge racism and change this country. She held a central position in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Ruby Doris died of cancer in 1967 at the age of 25. She did not like publicity and is not among the well-known figures in civil rights history. This book illuminates the important role that Ruby Doris played and introduces us to a complex, admirable woman. More than that, however, it examines the underlying context of race, class, culture, and gender within one of the most important movements in American history. Cynthia Fleming, a historian of the nineteenth century in America, grounds this book in a deep understanding of American history and its impact on African Americans, particularly African American women. Her understanding of Ruby Doris is placed in historical context and developed from in-depth interviews with participants of the movement and from thoughtful reading of civil rights studies and memoirs. She takes us from Ruby Doris’s childhood in Atlanta to her introduction to the civil rights movement while a student at Spelman College, her entry into SNCC, the crucial summer of 1964 that was a turning point in the movement, her final phase of activism in the mid-1960s, and finally to her last year of life, which Fleming has called Liberation. As she describes Ruby’s coming of age and growing sophistication within the movement, Fleming chronicles the coming of age of movement itself through the early days of hope and optimism to later periods of cynicism and despair. Ruby Doris began college while legal segregation was being challenged. Students were restless, inspired by a flurry of nationalist activity in Africa. When they began to participate in student protests, Ruby and her African American movement sisters faced pressure from family and community members concerned about their safety and future. These young women somehow found the strength to continue protesting although [End Page 185] they risked expulsion from school, jailings, beatings, and perhaps worse. Part of this strength came from their belief in the justness of their cause. Strong black female role models also served as a source of strength. Many of these young activists had grown up in close-knit communities where the existence of strong women was considered normal and common (61). Ruby’s courage and commitment took her in 1961 to a jail in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where she spent a month in a cell with Diane Nash, an equally courageous student leader from Nashville. During what must have been an intense period of political growth, the two women read together and discussed the burgeoning movement coming to southern cities. Ruby Doris then went on to the Freedom Rides, witnessing violence and serving extensive jail time. The central chapter of Soon We Will Not Cry is a candid analysis of Freedom Summer, 1964, when hundreds of volunteers came south. By this time Ruby Doris was married and had a small son, Kenneth Toure. She coordinated the summer activities from the Atlanta office, as the complicated relationships between northerners and southerners, men and women, black and white, played out in Mississippi. Fleming’s analysis of these complex relationships helps us understand why this was such a crucial turning point for SNCC and for the Civil Rights Movement. Fleming’s strength as historian and biographer emerges in this chapter. She presents solid information about what happened—divergent opinions and reflections from many key participants, and historical grounding on the intersection of gender and race—which moves beyond simplistic conclusions. Ruby’s final phase of activism also raises challenging issues. As the spirit of “black power” and cultural nationalism emerges in the mid-1960s, contradictory forces work on civil rights veterans. There is pressure within SNCC to become an all-black organization. There is pressure on African American...