Dannia Southerland, 62, passed away on February 9, 2013 in Durham, NC. Dannia, who went by Sunshine at the time, was on the WRL/Southeast staff from 1978 until 1984.
A strong woman with a strong presence, Sunshine had a great smile and ability to raise important issues and challenge us all. Mab Segrest wrote about Dannia in her book Memoir of a Race Traitor. Mab wrote of Dannia’s early activism organizing the first Gay Pride march in North Carolina in 1980 and that “the women’s peace movement and War Resisters League helped expand my understanding.”
“My friend and mentor was Dannia Southerland, six foot tall with thick red hair, easy to spot in a demonstration. Raised in the Marine southcoast town of Jacksonville, Dannia had been active in the G.I. Resistance arm of the antiwar movement with her then-husband. She had just come out when she took the job in the Durham office of the War Resisters League. Dannia introduced the [southern feminist journal] Feminary women to the work of Barbara Deming, who had participated in some of the major nonviolent campaigns of the civil rights and antiwar movements.”
Dannia and Mab continued to work together including co-facilitating antiracist trainings in North Carolina. Mandy Carter, who had worked with WRL West, first met Sunshine at the Durham Bus Depot in early 1982 when Mandy took a bus from San Francisco to Durham for an interview to work at WRL Southeast. “I have so many vivid memories of Dannia,” said Mandy. “Her daughter Tara came to all our WRL/Southeast meetings. Dannia was very involved in the Women’s Pentagon Action and the Women’s Walk from North Carolina to the Seneca Women’s Encampment for Peace and Justice. She was very active in Durham’s lesbian feminist movement. When I came on staff it was the first time two out lesbians were staff on WRL/Southeast. We remained friends until her death from stomach cancer.”
Dannia got her BA in History and Women’s Studies in 1988 and went on to get her Masters and PhD in Social Work, all at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dannia described her interests as “investigating issues of access and quality of care for vulnerable, under-served populations involved with the public sector mental health system.”
Dannia’s activism began with Vietnam and while she was involved in many aspects of social justice work, her work came full circle. Because of her research in health and clinical services at Duke University, Dannia was contacted by the U.S.-based group Children of Vietnam. On their blog they describe her introduction to the group: “Southerland laughs as she reflects on her first meeting with a board member from Children of Vietnam: ‘I went for coffee in Chapel Hill,’ Southerland says, ‘and wound up in Vietnam 30 days later.’” Dannia was one of the architects of the Hope System of Care which improved the quality of care provided children and youth affected by Agent Orange in Vietnam. In recognition of her work she was named an “Agent Orange Champion”. Upon her death the Dr. Dannia Southerland Memorial Fund was established. Donations may be made to: Children of Vietnam, Dr. Dannia Southerland Memorial Fund, 817 West End Blvd., Winston-Salem NC 27101-2406.
Dannia is survived by her partner Frayda Glanzberg of Durham, her mother Mary and her daugher Tara and two grandchildren.
The obituary in The News and Observer ended with “Of her many passions in life, Dannia firmly believed in two things: that everyone deserves equal economic, political, and social rights and opportunities, and that chardonnay should always be aged in oak barrels.”
—Joanne Sheehan
