Parallel lives: Feminist biographies of social activists

Nearly 30 years after the publication of her book, Maternal Justice: Miriam Van Waters and the Female Reform Tradition (1996), feminist scholar Estelle Freedman now sees her latest biography come to life in the documentary, Singing for Justice, which she co-directed with Christie Herring, MA ‘05. Freedman, the Edgar E. Robinson Professor in U.S. History (Emerit) at Stanford, reflected on her time writing about Miriam Van Waters and making the documentary on Faith Petric at a recent meeting of Clayman Institute Faculty Research Fellows. 

Freedman realized both women shared “parallel contradictions in their public and personal lives.” For example, Van Waters maintained an intimate relationship with another woman for decades but never called herself a “lesbian.” When Petric performed Eliot Kenin’s song “You Ain’t Done Nothin’ If You Ain’t Been Called a ‘Red,’” it encapsulated well her life’s work.

Petric was active in socialist and communist circles during the height of McCarthy-era blacklisting and FBI investigations, but she avoided the term “communist.” Despite the reticence of each woman to embrace publicly a demonized identity, the FBI files Freedman obtained for each of them revealed that in the 1950s, informants named Van Waters a lesbian and Petric a communist. Freedman now asks, “What can we learn from comparing the lives of these two distinctive women?”  

Miriam Van Waters (1887-1974), Freedman explains, was “the woman I never met, never knew, but who drew me into her life.” From the 1930s to the 1950s, Van Waters served as superintendent for the Massachusetts Reformatory for Women at Framingham. In this position, Van Waters realized that many of the women sentenced there had deviated from the gender norms of society. Whereas some saw these women as prisoners, Van Waters referred to them as “students” whom she could reform by enhancing their self-esteem through spiritual guidance and maternal nurturance. 

Van Waters had a long-term relationship with Geraldine Morgan Thompson, a wealthy benefactor who advocated for prison reform. In the late 1940s, when Van Waters was under investigation for reports of lesbianism at the reformatory, she burned incriminating letters from Thompson. Van Waters never accepted the identifier of “lesbian,” privileging an image of herself as a publicly respectable woman during a time when marginalized identities were anathematized. 

After publishing her book on Van Waters, Freedman did not think she would engage in feminist biography again. She did conduct an extensive oral history with Faith Petric, who she knew for 25 years through the San Francisco Folk Music Club. “Until the oral history, I had no idea of how historically significant she was,” Freedman said. Then, toward the end of her life, Petric asked Freedman if a filmmaker might be interested in her old performance videos. That led Freedman down the path to becoming co-director of the documentary about Petric’s life. 

Faith Petric (1915-2013) identified as a radical activist and embraced folk music to support labor, peace, racial justice, and women’s rights. She aided migrant workers, championed unions, worked as a Rosie the Riveter, and marched in Selma, Alabama. A single mother, she retired from her state social work job at age 55 and became a travelling folk singer. Petric also led the S.F. folk music club, opening her home for bi-weekly musical gatherings for half a century.

Although her book on Van Waters and her documentary on Petric are complete, understanding how public figures like these social activists navigate dangerous identities – and how their secrets often hide in plain sight – continues to intrigue Freedman. 

Singing for Justice screened at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco in February and aired on KQED in March. The film is currently streaming online through PBS.