When Subjects Talk Back: Writing Anne Braden's Life-In-Progress

Subversive Southerner is an oral history-based biography thatleans toward being a full critical biography of Anne Braden,a southern white woman (Kentucky-born, Alabama-reared) whoseracial justice activism spans nearly six decades. The book representsan enterprise of shared authority between Braden and authorCatherine Fosl, and this essay explores the evolution of thatenterprise and reflects on the relationship between oral historybiographer and living subject. During the thirteen years thatit took to complete the book, Fosl's relationship with Bradenwent through transitions that altered the structure of the book,and raised fundamental questions—such as who but the personliving it can or should have authority over a life? One of thecentral issues in writing the book was how to address a questionthat many historians of the 1950s South have pondered: was AnneBraden ever a member of the Communist Party? Braden chose notto answer that question, and Fosl respected her decision.