Mab Segrest | |
|---|---|
 Segrest in 2016 | |
| Born | Mabelle Massey Segrest (1949-02-20)February 20, 1949 (age 76) Tuskegee, Alabama, U.S. |
| Education | Duke University (PhD) |
| Occupation(s) | Scholar, Writer |
| Notable work | Memoir of a Race Traitor |
Mabelle Massey Segrest, known asMab Segrest (born February 20, 1949), is an Americanlesbian feminist, writer, scholar and activist associated with theAmerican South. Segrest is best known for her 1994 autobiographical workMemoir of a Race Traitor, which won the Editor's ChoiceLambda Literary Award. Segrest is the former Fuller-Matthai Professor of Gender andWomen's Studies atConnecticut College.
In the 1970s, Segrest moved to North Carolina to attendDuke University, where she earned her PhD inEnglish literature in 1979. While studying at Duke, and for several years thereafter, she taught English at nearbyCampbell University. In 2002 Segrest began teaching atConnecticut College inNew London, Connecticut as a Visiting Assistant Professor and Chair of the Gender and Women's Studies Department.[1] In 2004 she was appointed the Fuller-Matthai Professor of Gender andWomen's Studies. She was a Mellon Distinguished Professor at the Center for Research on Women atTulane University in 2004. From 2009-2010, Segrest was a Fellow at the James Weldon Johnson Institute for Civil Rights atEmory University. In 2015 she served as the Martha Daniel Newell Scholar in Residence atGeorgia College & State University. She retired from teaching in 2014.[2]
Segrest has founded, served on the boards of, and consulted with a wide range ofsocial justice organizations throughout her life and is a recognized speaker and writer on issues ofsexism,racism,homophobia,classism, and other forms of oppression. In the mid 1980s, Segrest helped to form NCARRV (North Carolinians Against Racist and Religious Violence) with Christina Davis-McCoy.[3] From 1983 to 1990, Segrest worked with NCARRV, for which she is credited by many for ridding North Carolina of theKu Klux Klan. From 1986-1997 she served on the board of the Center for Democratic Renewal, which was founded in 1979 as theNational Anti-Klan Network by C.T. Vivian and Anne Braden.[4] From 1992 to 2000 she served as coordinator of theUrban-Rural Mission (USA), part of the URM network of theWorld Council of Churches.
Until it disbanded in 1983, Segrest was a member of the Southern feminist writing collectiveFeminary, which also produced a journal of the same name.[5] Feminarians, including Segrest, saw writing as a force for political change, and the journal maintained a Southern feminist focus and was anti-sexist, anti-racist, anti-homophobic, and anti-classist.[4]
Through the collective and other activist work, Segrest generated material for her first book of essays,My Mama's Dead Squirrel.
Her book narrating her experience working against the Klan with North Carolinians Against Racist and Religious Violence (NCARRV) isMemoir of a Race Traitor, published bySouth End Press in 1994. It was named an Outstanding Book on Human Rights in North America and was Editor's Choice for the Lambda Literary Awards.[6]Memoir of a Race Traitor was hailed byHoward Zinn as "extraordinary . . . It is a 'political memoir,' but its language is poetic and its tone passionate."[7] It is considered a key text inwhite studies and anti-racist studies. In this work, Segrest outlines her definition of "queer socialism," which is how she defines her political stance. This version of socialism demands a more caring world where all citizens are taken into consideration when resources are allocated and opportunities are dispensed. She says that while there is no blueprint as yet for this form of socialism, it would be based infeminist theory and practice. It was re-released in 2019 byThe New Press.[8]
Segrest's book,Born to Belonging: Writings on Spirit and Justice was published in 2002 and recounts her experiences in activism around the world. Segrest co-editedSing, Whisper, Shout, Pray: Feminist Strategies for a Just World (2003) withM. Jacqui Alexander, Lisa Albrect andSharon Day.
Segrest was awarded a fellowship at theNational Humanities Center to support the writing of herAdministrations of Lunacy: Racism and the Haunting of American Psychiatry at the Milledgeville Asylum on the history of theCentral State Hospital inMilledgeville, Georgia. This book was published in 2020 byThe New Press.[9]
FoundingRiot grrrl bandLe Tigre mention Segrest's name in their 1999 single "Hot Topic," from their debut albumLe Tigre. In listing important feminist figures, lead singerKathleen Hanna described the song as "analogous to a college syllabus".[10]
Segrest was portrayed by Staci Jacobson in the 2016 stage playThe Integration of Tuskegee High School. The production premiered atAuburn University and dramatized Segrest's time as a student during the 1963-1964 school year in her hometown ofTuskegee, Alabama.[11]
