First drawn into the fight against racial segregation in the 1960s, Alice Embree became a leader of Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Texas at Austin and embarked on a lifelong journey of social activism involving a wide array of grassroots political, economic, social, and cultural causes.
The Briscoe Center has recently published Alice’s memoir, Voice Lessons, which draws heavily from her papers, part of the center’s civil rights and social justice collections. Alice’s thoughtful memoir opens our eyes to what it was like to serve as an active participant in causes that continue to affect us all.
In this podcast, Alice is joined by Dr. Julia Mickenberg, a professor of American Studies at UT Austin and an award-winning author. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on such topics as US Cultural History; Women Radicals and Reformers; and Society, Culture, and Politics in the 1960s. Dr. Mickenberg also wrote the foreword to Voice Lessons.
Voice Lessons is published by the Briscoe Center for American History and distributed by the University of Texas Press.
To purchase a copy of Voice Lessons, please visit: https://utpress.utexas.edu/books/embree-voice-lessons
Right: Printing at Red River Women’s Press, c. 1978. Photo by Mary Ellen LeBien.
Right: Alice Embree speaking at a University Freedom Movement rally in April 1967, Photo by John Avant.
This episode of American Rhapsody was produced by Ashley Carr.
The audio was mixed and mastered by Morgan Honaker and Ean Herrera.