Susie Goodwillie

Born and raised in the suburbs of New York City, Susie Goodwillie went to Stanford University. There, Allard K. Lowenstein inspired her to take part in the Civil Rights Movement. Unlike most of her generation, Goodwillie began her activities through the women’s movement, and became the first white woman to be employed by the National Council of Negro Women. Goodwillie worked with WIMS throughout 1964 and 1965.

Goodwillie’s official assignment in Jackson
Because Height and Cowan were afraid to reveal to the white Jackson community the real reason for Goodwillie’s sojourn there, they gave her a kind of alias. She was there, officially, to write a cookbook for Chilmark Press – a small publishing house located in New York City and owned by Louis G. Cowan. The joke that summer was that if you really wanted to publish a cookbook of Jackson recipes worth using, you wouldn’t go the white community; you would go the black women in the community.

A college roommate of Susan Goodwillie, Diane Vivell agreed to volunteer as the second white WIMS staff member in the summer of 1964.