Many Va-Hist subscribers will wish to see this interesting electronic review
of a new edition of Sara Patton Boyle's important DESEGREGATED HEART that is
circulating on H-Net's electronic discussion lists.

Please respect the letter and spirit of the copyright notice that follows
the review.

Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
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Visit the Library of Virginia's web site at http://www.lva.lib.va.us


-----Original Message-----
From: H-South Review Editor Ian Binnington [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 24 September, 2001 4:21 PM
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Subject: H-South Review: Butler on Boyle, _The Desegregated Heart_


H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by [log in to unmask] (September, 2001)

Sarah Patton Boyle. _The Desegregated Heart: A Virginian's Stand in Time of
Transition_.  Introduction by Jennifer Ritterhouse.  Charlottesville and
London, England: University Press of Virginia, 2001. xxxii + 388 pp. 6 b&w
illustrations.  $19.95 paper, ISBN 0-8139-2029-9.

Reviewed for H-South by J. Michael Butler, [log in to unmask],
Department of Social Sciences, South Georgia College

_The Desegregated Heart_: A Civil Rights Classic Which Remains Relevant

While the written recollections of civil rights activists continue to
increase as years pass, Sarah Patton Boyle's  _The Desegregated Heart_
remains a unique contribution to the existing movement literature.  First
published in 1962, the book traces Boyle's evolution from a defender of the
Southern racial status quo to a public advocate for black equality in the
late 1950s.  It is a valuable autobiographical account of the obstacles and
triumphs an upper class white woman experienced during the 1950s freedom
struggle, yet also provides insight into many other elements of Southern
society during a period of considerable social unrest.

The latest edition of _The Desegregated Heart_  includes two features which
enhance its appeal for students and scholars of the black freedom
movement.  An introduction by Jennifer Ritterhouse places the book in
historical context, provides background information on the author and her
influences not available in the original volume, and briefly traces Boyle's
public life through the 1960s.  In addition, the edition reprints fourteen
letters written between Boyle and T. J. Sellers, the black newspaper editor
who contributed heavily to her development as an integrationist.  The new
introduction and inclusion of the primary documents contributes intriguing
elements for those familiar with the book, suggests directions for future
research, and adds to the appeal it has for civil rights students and
scholars.

_The Desegregated Heart_  is divided into three parts, the first of which
Boyle entitled "The Southern Never-Never Land."  The initial chapters
describe the customs which separated Southern whites and blacks in the
first half of the twentieth century.  Young Patty, as she was called since
her 1906 birth, had several black playmates but their relationships changed
when she turned twelve.  Adults trained the child to become "a typical
Southern lady" (p. 29), characterized by an intense love of region, social
superiority, and white supremacy.  She learned many features of the
unwritten "Southern code" (p. 21), that separated the races in complex and
subtle ways, such as speaking to blacks with a different accent, never
addressing black adults with courtesy titles, and believing that blacks
appreciated white acknowledgment of their differences.  Patty thus
concluded at a young age that the Negro "was our pet, often our child, but
. . . never our equal" nor "given human dignity" (p. 49).

The paternalism which also characterized the worldview Patty learned
intensified after she married E. Roger Boyle III in 1932.  In 1950 she
discovered that a black male applied for law school at the University of
Virginia, where her husband taught drama.  Due to her maternalistic ideas,
moral superiority, and faith that educated whites supported limited
integration, Patty supported Gregory Swanson in his attempt to enter the
school.  Boyle contacted Swanson and offered her support, yet reprimanded
him for using an extensive vocabulary, stated their friendship must remain
private, and solicited gratitude for her efforts.  After several
uncomfortable meetings between the two, Swanson rejected an essay Boyle
wrote that supported "nonsegregation" (p. 71), a word that summarized the
condition between segregation and integration that Boyle desired.  The lack
of appreciation for her efforts confused Boyle, who asked black
_Charlottesville Tribune_ editor T. J. Sellers to read her article and
explain Swanson's response.

Jennifer Ritterhouse provides background information on the influential
editor in her introduction to the new volume that Boyle did not mention in
her original work.  Thomas Jerome Sellers, a Charlottesville native born in
1911, graduated with a history degree from Virginia Union University in
1939.  After working a variety of white collar positions, he started the
_Tribune_ only months before Boyle first contacted him.  His outspoken
nature and social status made him a leader in the black community and the
person to re-educate the misguided idealist.  Sellers agreed to read
Boyle's essay and responded with his first lesson in what she later dubbed
"The T. J. Sellers Course for Backward Southern Whites" (p. 105).  In their
initial correspondence Sellers illuminated numerous flaws in her article,
such as her slavery references, defense of the University, and
condescending tone.  He closed the letter by declaring "a New Negro"
existed that insisted "America wake up and recognize the fact that he is a
man like other men.  He is entirely out of sympathy with the gross
paternalism of the 'Master Class' turned liberal" (p. 84).  The direct
response shocked Boyle and encouraged her to prove his view of white
resistance "an evil illusion" (p. 93). Simultaneously, however, she asked
him to direct a re-evaluation of her racial ideals.  Sellers accepted her
request and Boyle intensified efforts to bridge the social gap between the
races.

 From 1950 through 1954, Boyle encountered no resistance to her
activities.  Several of her white peers joined her efforts to remove
segregation signs from public offices and flooded state newspapers with
letters supporting black equality.  Patty even wrote four articles each
week for Sellers' _Tribune_, even though the editor continuously doubted
her optimism.  The lack of resistance to her efforts supported Boyle's
beliefs that the "innocent ignorance" (p. 151) of many whites perpetrated
segregation and that education would eradicate racial injustice in the
South.   Boyle's positive experiences assured her that white Southerners
"were readier for integration than we ourselves suspected" (p. 134).  Her
optimism began to decline on May 17, 1954.

The second section of Boyle's book, "Bloodless Destruction," began with the
_Brown_ decision and illuminated the massive resistance to integration
which followed the verdict.  Boyle first encountered hostility at a
November 1954 meeting held to discuss school integration in
Charlottesville.  While many of her white peers abandoned the struggle for
racial equality after the meeting, Boyle remained optimistic and wrote an
article the _Saturday Evening Post_ published in 1955 entitled "Southerners
Will Like Integration."  Hate mail, bomb threats, and burning crosses
followed its release but came primarily from the lower classes that Boyle
believed most likely to use terroristic tactics.  Her greatest discontent
came from upper class whites who ignored, ridiculed, and ostracized
her.  The NAACP also asked her to step aside in the struggle to integrate
area schools in 1958, which increased her bewilderment.  Although
Charlottesville classrooms desegregated in 1959, Boyle remained bitter and
disillusioned with whites and blacks who participated in the civil rights
struggle.

"Thou Shall Love," the final section of Boyle's memoirs, examines the
spiritual rebirth she experienced after her discontent peaked.  Although
Ritterhouse argues the chapters are "unfamiliar and even uncomfortable
reading for secular audiences in the post-civil rights era" (p. xix), Boyle
considers them her most important.  In her preface, Boyle claims her book
is not a history of integration in Charlottesville but "a simple document"
whose core "is the solution I found to the problems of the human heart" (p.
xxxii).  Her rejuvenation stressed Orthodox Christianity and its three main
components of God, love, and service.  In fact, the phrase "God is love"
(p. 306) formed the basis of her religious awakening and led to an eventual
discrediting of her faith in liberal whites, black activists, and an
idealized region.  The section is a revealing odyssey that illuminates the
theological motivations some white civil rights activists possessed.

The reprinted edition concludes with a series of letters between Boyle and
Sellers which proves the most important contribution of the newest
volume.  The messages allow readers to trace Boyles' transformation from
her first arrogant and moralistic correspondence with Sellers to her 1968
proclamation, "I am one who does not identify myself with any race or
region" (p. 388).  The most intriguing notes reveal that Boyle retired from
movement activism in 1967 due to the rise of black separatism and belief
that she no longer had an audience for her efforts, reasons that conflict
with the revelations she discussed in _The Desegregated Heart_'s  final
section.  Sellers questioned her reasons for retirement, challenged her to
reassess the decision, and called the continuing movement "everybody's
struggle" for "human dignity" (p. 385).  The exchange continued the
dialogue the two maintained for nearly twenty years and illustrated the
extent to which Sellers influenced Boyle's writings and life.

The 2001 edition of _The Desegregated Heart_ , therefore, deserves
consideration for a variety of reasons.  The introduction frames the
classic book in historical context, provides supplemental information the
original volume did not contain, and raises several points which should
stimulate interesting debates among contemporary students and
scholars.  Ritterhouse's declaration that "Boyle is best understood as a
transitional figure in the history of the black freedom struggle" (p. xx),
for example, is one such interpretation that provides a departure point for
movement historians. [1] Most importantly, the sampling of the
correspondence between Boyle and Sellers encourages additional research
into this intriguing relationship, and others similar to it which existed
between white liberals, particularly females, and black intellectuals
elsewhere in the civil rights South.  Such examinations would contribute a
unique methodology to the examination and expand historical understanding
of the civil rights movement.

Notes

[1]  It is true that Boyle preceded women who participated in the movement
and came of age in the 1960s, such as those examined in the essay
collection Constance Curry, et al.,  _Deep in Our Hearts: Nine White Women
in the Freedom Movement_ (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 200), but it
is debatable that Boyle's primary importance is her role as a "transitional
figure" for future feminists.

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