I was a graduate student researching the struggle for voting-rights during the New Deal/World War II era when I first met Virginia Durr in Wetumpka, Ala. Cliff, her husband and soul mate, had died a few years earlier. He was a leading New Deal lawyer and laid the foundation for public broadcasting.

Virginia led in building a biracial coalition that lobbied for federal legislation to abolish the poll tax — the first voting rights bill debated in Congress since the late 19th century.

It was a pivotal moment for me. Virginia drew me into the world of radical democratic politics during the 1930s and 1940s, disrupting my understanding of the Civil Rights Movement that peaked in the 1960s and the aftermath. Virginia and her dog-eared address book became foundational to my work as a historian and teacher. And it was Virginia who introduced me to the Vineyard, where she was a summer resident in the family home of her daughter and son-in-law, Lucy and Sheldon Hackney.

In the early 1990s, Virginia and I settled in at the Hackneys’ home for the month of June – prior to the arrival of Sheldon and Lucy — as I worked to finish my first book on the New Deal era. We also hatched the idea of editing a collection of Virginia’s letters, a brilliant, first-hand chronicle of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s. Our discussions roamed widely, illuminating Virginia’s claim that “the political is personal.”

Virginia’s life unfolded within the jagged struggle for democracy and racial justice that marked the 20th century. Born in Birmingham, Ala. in 1903 as segregation fastened its hold throughout the South, her political education occurred in Washington D.C., during the heady days of the New Deal and Popular Front. She and Cliff survived the repression of the Cold War era and became key participants in the triumphant struggle for civil rights centered in Alabama. She actively resisted and organized against the conservative ascendancy of the Nixon and Reagan years.

Steeped in history, Virginia was never content to simply tell about what happened in the past. As her young friend Randall Williams recalled, she used history “almost as a weapon. She would beat you about the head and shoulders with it until you understood what you were supposed to do now.”

Her family hosted a 90th birthday party in the summer of 1993 on the Hackneys’ lawn, overlooking Vineyard Haven harbor. Hundreds of Virginia’s friends, spanning the generations, came: Lady Bird Johnson, her friend since New Deal days; Dorothy Burnham, who had been on the ground in Birmingham in the 1940s, aligned with Virginia in the fight for voting rights; Victor Rabinowitz, civil liberties lawyer who along with Cliff Durr had defended victims of the loyalty order; Fred Gray, who, as a young lawyer, represented Rosa Parks during the bus boycott; Kathleen Cleaver, a leader of the Black Panther Party; Lani Guinier who carried on the fight to secure the right to vote in the 1980s and 90s.

William Styron, Virginia’s fellow southerner, addressed the guests as “fellow cult members.” Virginia’s instruction to the crowd, “We’ve got to come together or this country’s going to hell.”

Virginia died in 1999. I moved forward with the letters project — an immersive experience, where her wit, passion, restless curiosity and political insight remained vibrant and relevant. With Richard Nixon riding high, America entrenched in Vietnam, and Law and Order the mantra, Virginia wrote Jessica Mitford, “yes it’s awful” but why must people “go on and on infinitum about it.”

To another friend, “the point is not how bad things are…the point is what are we going to do about it? Where are the good people, the strong people, the places where we can make our defense and stand against the evil forces?”

August 6 marks the anniversary of Virginia Durr’s birth and, notably, the passage of the Voting Rights Act. In our unhinged times, the history and spirit of the long struggle to sustain and broaden our democracy has much to teach, while inspiring us onward.

Patricia Sullivan, historian and author, recently retired from the University of South Carolina and lives in Vineyard Haven. Her books include Freedom Writer: Virginia Foster Durr: Letters from the Civil Rights Years.