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Excerpt from Oral History Interview with Vivion Lenon Brewer, October 15, 1976. Interview G-0012. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) See Entire Interview >>

WEC members face opposition from their husbands

Brewer exposes the marital struggles brought on women's activist work. Despite the WEC's attempts to preserve the harmony in marriages, a high number of divorces occurred among the women activists.

Citing this Excerpt

Oral History Interview with Vivion Lenon Brewer, October 15, 1976. Interview G-0012. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Full Text of the Excerpt

ELIZABETH JACOWAY:
Were there very many women who worked for your Committee whose husbands were not sympathetic?
VIVION LENON BREWER:
Quite a lot. And some of them asked us not to send mail to their homes, because they . . . Well, unfortunately, I know of a few divorces that came from this period. But we tried, here again, in our membership list--which we always maintained we didn't have . . .
ELIZABETH JACOWAY:
(Laughs)
VIVION LENON BREWER:
. . . (laughs) you know--we tried to mark it always with whether or not we could send mail direct, or whether they (members) would get it at another address, or whether they'd pick it up at the office, or how it should be handled. Because we really tried awfully hard to protect the women.