{{short description|Civil rights activist}} {{Infobox academic | name = Sue Thrasher | image = <!--(filename only, i.e. without "File:" prefix)--> | caption = | birth_name = Martha Sue Thrasher | birth_date = <!--{{birth date |YYYY|MM|DD}}--> | birth_place = | death_date = <!--{{death date and age |YYYY|MM|DD |YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date)--> | workplaces = | education = | alma_mater = University of Massachusetts at Amherst | thesis_title = International women as popular educators : an inquiry into the nature and implications of everyday experience | thesis_url = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/35905302 | thesis_year = 1994 | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | doctoral_students = | awards = | website = <!--{{URL|www.example.com}}--> }}
'''Martha Sue Thrasher''' is an activist, writer and educator known for her work on civil rights and gathering white students into the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
== Early life and education == Thrasher is originally from rural West Tennessee, where she grew as one of four children<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Woods |first=Barbara A. |url=http://archive.org/details/southernwomenatm00unse |title=Southern women at the millennium : a historical perspective |publisher=Columbia : University of Missouri Press |others=Missouri University Press |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8262-1505-5 |pages=101–102 |chapter=Working in the shadows: Southern women and civil rights}}</ref> in a Methodist family.<ref>{{Cite news |last=O'Leary |first=Dillon |date=1971-07-10 |title=Youth as nigger |pages=40 |work=The Ottawa Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97947501/youth-as-nigger/ |access-date=2022-03-19}}</ref> She started college at Lambuth College, then, after working with black students from Lane College during a mock United Nations event she transferred to Scarritt College because it was an integrated school.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Woods |first=Saralee Terry |date=2000-12-31 |title=White women recall roles in civil rights movement |pages=59 |work=The Tennessean |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97945307/white-women-recall-roles-in-civil/ |access-date=2022-03-19}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Later, Thrasher received an M.Ed. (1994) and an Ed.D. (1996) from the Center for International Education<ref>{{Cite news |date=1991-03-24 |title=Campus Life: Massachusetts; University Helps Its Workers Take Their 'Next Steps' |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/24/nyregion/campus-life-massachusetts-university-helps-its-workers-take-their-next-steps.html |access-date=2022-03-19 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Sue Thrasher (M.Ed. 1994; Ed.D. 1996) {{!}} Center for International Education |url=http://www.umass.edu/cie/sue-thrasher-med-1994-edd-1996 |access-date=2022-03-19 |website=www.umass.edu}}</ref>
== Activism == Thrasher first became involved in the activist community while a student at Scarritt College where she joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee shortly after arriving on campus and learned the basics about grassroots organization and planning.<ref>{{Cite interview |last=Sinsheimer |first=Joe |date=June 30, 1999 |title=Interview with Sue Thrasher, Civil Rights Movement Archive |url=}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Sue Thrasher oral history interview, 2017-06-05 |url=https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/GSB/id/10238/ |access-date=2022-03-19 |website=digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu |language=en}}</ref> In 1963 Thrasher led a group in Nashville, Tennessee to protest against the policies of a local restaurant,<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Evans |first=Sara M. (Sara Margaret) |url=http://archive.org/details/personalpolitics0000evan |title=Personal politics : the roots of women's liberation in the civil rights movement and the new left |date=1979 |location=New York |publisher=Knopf |isbn=978-0-394-41911-4 |pages=46}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/hiddenhistorieso0000unse |title=Hidden histories of women in the New South |date=1994 |location=Columbia |publisher= University of Missouri Press |isbn=978-0-8262-0958-0 |pages=190}}</ref>{{Rp|page=163}} with early actions centered on an Easter weekend meeting in Nashville in 1964.<ref name=":5">{{Citation |last=Michel |first=Gregg L. |title=Building an Organization: The Founding of SSOC |date=2004 |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1057/9781403981813_3 |work=Struggle for a Better South |pages=33–62 |place=New York |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US |language=en |doi=10.1057/9781403981813_3 |isbn=978-0-230-60256-4 |access-date=2022-03-19|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/sim_southern-struggle_1966-01_24_1 |title=The Southern Patriot 1966-01: Vol 24 Iss 1 |date=1966 |publisher=Southern Conference Educational Fund |language=English}}</ref> These actions led to the founding of the Southern Students Organizing Committee, and Thrasher served as its first executive secretary.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/rebellioninblack0000unse |title=Rebellion in Black and white : southern student activism in the 1960s |date=2013 |location=Baltimore |publisher= The Johns Hopkins University Press |isbn=978-1-4214-0849-1}}</ref> As the executive director of the Southern Students Organizing Committee, Thrasher would consistently host gatherings at her home with other local activist to plan, collaborate and work together;<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|page=36}} she was the only woman who served as an officer in the organization.<ref name=":4" /> During her tenure, she organized and led the “white folks project” during the Mississippi summer<ref>{{Cite news |date=1964-09-15 |title=125 attend discussion on civil rights |pages=5 |work=The Lexington Herald |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97945116/125-attend-discussion-on-civil-rights/ |access-date=2022-03-19}}</ref> where Thrasher aimed to include more white people in the civil rights movement by actively recruiting white Americans.<ref name=":5" /> In 1970, Thrasher went on to found (with some of her SSOC counterparts), the Institute for Southern Studies, a research center that advocates for progressive political and social causes that affect that Southern United States.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-03-12 |title=From the Archives: We needed to know more about the South |url=https://www.facingsouth.org/2021/03/archives-we-needed-know-more-about-south |access-date=2022-03-01 |website=Facing South |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2" />
Thrasher's work in the civils rights movement is also covered in J. Anthony Lukas's book, ''Don't shoot we are your children'',<ref>{{Cite news |last=Carson |first=Catherine |date=1971-07-16 |title=America's young rebels probed |pages=58 |work=Edmonton Journal |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97945772/americas-young-rebels-probed/ |access-date=2022-03-19}}</ref> which was reviewed by Kurt Vonnegut in Life magazine.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vonnegut |first=Kurt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MkAEAAAAMBAJ&dq=don%27t+shoot+we+are+your+children+sue+thrasher&pg=PA14 |title=Closed season on the kids |date=1971-04-09 |publisher=Life Magazine, Time Inc |pages=14 |language=en}}</ref>
== Later life == In 1978 Thrasher transitioned to a job at the Highlander Center where she worked to organize their archives and conducting oral histories and sharing the stories with the public.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jolly |first=Brad |date=1981-01-16 |title=Highlander center story told by New Market worker |pages=5 |work=Johnson City Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97947165/highlander-center-story-told-by-new/ |access-date=2022-03-19}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title="I Want to Be Your Friend, You Black Idiot!!": The Dynamics of Majority Involvement in Minority Movements - SSA Centennial |url=http://ssacentennial.uchicago.edu/events/symposium-payne-bios-thrasher.shtml |access-date=2022-03-19 |website=ssacentennial.uchicago.edu}}</ref> Thrasher retired from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2013.<ref name=":1" />
== References == {{reflist}}
== Further reading == *{{Cite book |title=Deep in our hearts : nine white women in the Freedom Movement |date=2000 |others=Constance Curry |isbn=0-8203-2266-0 |location=Athens |oclc=45253105}}
== External links == *[https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc953269/?q=%221982%22 1982 photo of Thrasher] *[http://scua.library.umass.edu/thrasher-sue/ Sue Thrasher Poster Collection], University of Massachusetts *[http://crdl.usg.edu/people/t/thrasher_sue/?Welcome&Welcome Civil Rights Digital Library, Sue Thrasher] *[https://digitalcollections.library.gsu.edu/digital/collection/GSB/id/10238/ Sue Thrasher oral history interview], Georgia State University
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thrasher, Sue}} Category:Living people Category:American civil rights activists Category:Oral historians Category:Scarritt College alumni Category:University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni Category:Year of birth missing (living people)