Meet the Dissident Daughters
Eight white women, descended from enslavers, who grew up in the Jim Crow South, reflect on pivotal moments in their lives that led them to reject the racism that surrounded them.
Libba Adams
Libba grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, lived for 35 years in Pittsboro, North Carolina, and moved to Colorado in 2025. She got her first taste of racism when she was three years old and gave her caregiver a good-bye kiss, which infuriated her father.
Ruth Ash
Ruth was born in Mobile and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. She is a life-long innovative educator, and in this role, met Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth. He became a treasured friend when Ruth served as his volunteer driver whenever he visited Birmingham.
Dana Ellis
Dana grew up in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and now lives in Birmingham, Alabama. Fired from her first (volunteer) job in her father's medical practice because she refused to treat Black patients differently from white ones, she went on to be a nurse as well as an activist.
Curtis Flowers
Curtis’s family has deep roots in North Alabama and the Blackbelt. She lives in Florence, Alabama. She has an interesting family connection to Alex Haley, the author of the much-acclaimed novel Roots.
Nell Gottlieb
Nell grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and now lives in Austin, Texas. In the 1950s, she learned Lost Cause ideology at her grandmother's knee in Harpersville, Alabama, on what had been their ancestors' cotton plantation. Today it houses a center for arts and racial reconciliation which was cofounded by Nell and a Black descendant.
Marcia Herman-Giddens
Marcia grew up in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1966, fleeing Jim Crow and her maternal family's racism, she left with her young family for North Carolina. In recent years, Marcia has discovered reparative genealogy which she writes about along with how it connected her to some of her many African American cousins.
Jay Lamar
Born in Montgomery, Jay grew up with strong family ties to Tuskegee, a place where the tragic results of virulent political racism continue to play out. She is co-editor, most recently, of Old Enough: Southern Women and Artists on Creativity and Aging. Jay is co-editor of Dissident Daughters of the Confederacy.
Julia Walker
Julia Walker grew up in rural Tuscaloosa County and now lives in rural Hale County, both in Alabama. Although her family, especially her mother, was quite progressive for that time, Julia has come to recognize how deeply ingrained racism has been in her life. Julia is a chapter author and co-editor of Dissident Daughters of the Confederacy.
Claudia Woods
Claudia Wood grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, and now lives in Senoia, Georgia. She was raised by a family excessively proud of their Confederate heritage, but the influence of a beloved caregiver set her on a path much different from that of the people around her.