Mask of the southern lady: Virginia Foster Durr, southern womanhood and reform

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: This study examines the life and reform efforts of Virginia Foster Durr. Her reform work spans the years of the Great Depression into the era of the modern Civil Rights Movement. Durr's story has been compiled from a variety of sources, such a personal interviews, archive collections, newspapers, articles, and secondary sources.

Findings and Conclusions: Virginia Foster Durr was able to manipulate her identity as a Southern lady to work for controversial changes in race relations in the Deep South. At various times during her life, Durr assumed different identities, which allowed her to work on the political front during the 1930s and into the 1960s. Durr was involved in various organizations, such as the National Committee to Abolish the Poll Tax (NCAPT), the Southern Conference for Human Welfare (SCHW), and she also became highly involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955. Due to her visible position within the SCHW and the NCAPT, Durr became a target of Communist accusations during the early 1950s. Durr's rich life and activism demonstrates how women operated for change despite strict social and cultural regulations that often disapproved of women's political participation.