I took a Women & Activism class from Margaret Flowing Johnson at WashU back in spring of 1991 in my last semester of college. We read the book "You Can't Kill the Spirit" by Pam McAllister, which I still have.
There's a passage in it where Mother Jones is urging the women of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, to bring their babies to the picket line and to sing all night long. "And the people complained about the singing, and the women would not shut up, and the babies would not shut up, and nobody would shut up until they turned them all out."
That semester of college started with the US attack on Iraq. And I and 21 or so people blocked the entrance to the federal building in St. Louis the morning after the war started. Both Flowing and I were arrested. And we sang as we were blocking the entrance. I remember Flowing insisting that we sing the correct verses to Holly Near's "Singing for Our Lives." Linked arm in arm, we sang until one by one we were all arrested.
We spent about 8 hours in jail that day, and the women were placed in solitary confinement--we could shout to each other but not see each other--except when Flowing got to leave to visit her lawyer. (Boy was I jealous! I had called out to the group to ask what the possible maximum sentence was for unlawful assembly and resisting arrest and I was told possibly 6 months...how I wish I had had a lawyer at that moment!)
But at some point, someone started beating on their bunk. The beat spread. Before long, all of us women were creating an intense rhythm and were hooting and hollering like witches on the full moon. It wasn't clear who started it, and it was almost impossible to identify anyone's actual voice. It was at once a cry of pain, a scream of resistance, a song of sisterhood, and a holler of joy.
Rest well, Margaret Flowing Johnson. Somewhere I can hear you urging us to resist unjust authority, with a glint in your eye, hooting and hollering, and not shutting up until we shut them down. [pasted from Facebook - sorry I don't have any pictures!]
