Harvard’s former president Drew Faust on making “necessary trouble”

• Drew Faust is a former Harvard University President (2007–2018), current Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor, and former Goldman Sachs Board of Directors member (2018–2020).
• Her new memoir, Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at Mid-Century, details her experiences growing up in a segregated Virginia during the 1950s and 60s.
• The title "Necessary Trouble" was borrowed with explicit permission from civil rights icon John Lewis; Faust secured his approval via a phone call two months before his death in 2020.
• Lewis had previously thanked Faust for making "Necessary Trouble" during a 2018 commencement address at Harvard.

Family Dynamics and Early Constraints

• Faust's mother explicitly instructed her that it was a "man's world" and that she should learn this quickly to be "better off."
• Her mother died suddenly on Christmas Eve 1966, at age 43, when Faust was 19; Faust speculates her mother was an adult anorexic who "erased her own self" due to societal constraints.
• Faust reports her mother "didn't like or enjoy" her children, viewing their presence as a burden within a life she found dissatisfying.
• As the only girl among four brothers (including one born when Faust was eight), she noted an immediate preference for a male child to avoid "negative comparisons."
• She engaged in "open revolt" from childhood regarding gendered expectations, such as refusing to wear "little lace clothes" or conform to the role of a "good Southern lady."

Awakening to Racial Inequity

• In 1957, at age nine, Faust realized her school was white by design after listening to radio debates about "Massive Resistance" following the Brown v. Board ruling.
• She wrote a letter to President Dwight D. Eisenhower demanding school integration, a document she rediscovered in the Eisenhower Library in 2018.
• Her school headmaster advised her in second grade to "read fewer books" the following summer, a feedback Faust identifies as a gendered reaction to a girl being "too smart" and "too good."

Pivotal Experiences and Travel

• 1963 Eastern Europe Trip: Faust traveled to East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia with a Quaker group to foster peace across the Iron Curtain.
  • The trip included three African-American students, marking the first time Faust lived in close, equal proximity to Black peers, transforming her perspective on equality.
  • In East Germany, she encountered a heavily repressive society with armed guards and an official "minder" who tried to prevent unauthorized contact.
  • Faust notes that the minder lost his job for allowing the group to meet with unapproved East Germans.
• 1964 Southern Civil Rights Trip: Following the Eastern Europe trip, Faust joined a group to the U.S. South to test the implementation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
  • The group stayed with Black families active in the movement, including a nine-year-old in Orangeburg, South Carolina, who had been arrested 12 times for protesting.
  • They traveled to Mississippi during "Freedom Summer" to test public accommodation laws, such as attempting to order drinks at an A&W root beer stand in a mixed group.

Protest and Activism

• Faust joined the Selma to Montgomery March in 1965 after witnessing John Lewis being beaten on national television during the "Bloody Sunday" march.
  • She describes being pushed hard in the chest by a National Guardsman in Selma, who identified her as an "outside agitator" and prioritized "Alabama" over the federal National Guard presence.
• She participated in anti-war rallies throughout the 1960s, motivated by the draft's impact on college peers and the "unfairness" of the Vietnam War.
  • Faust remained a "peaceful protester," distinct from friends who joined violent factions like the Weather Underground.
• 1968 College Years: Her senior year at Bryn Mawr coincided with a year of intense national upheaval, including:
  • President Lyndon B. Johnson withdrawing from re-election.
  • The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Urban riots in Washington, D.C.
  • The assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
  • Violent riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Higher Education Context

• Faust attended Bryn Mawr College, an all-women's institution that focused on preparing women to "conquer" the male-dominated world rather than fundamentally changing it for women.
  • She contrasts this with the era's reality where women were excluded from Princeton and lacked equal access within Harvard (e.g., the Radcliffe undergraduate library).
• Post-Graduate Path: She initially worked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for two years before returning to graduate school to study history.
• Reflection on Freedom: Faust identifies a thematic evolution in her life from fighting personal gender constraints to engaging with racial freedom struggles, contrasting the "freedom from" chains with the East German state's emphasis on "freedom to" (state-provided security).

Perspectives on Modern Higher Education

• Demographic Shifts: The percentage of American adults over 25 with college degrees rose from fewer than 10% in 1970 to nearly 40% in 2020.
• Increased Complexity: Faust argues that universities are now "complicated places" due to this diversity, noting that students now face peers whose families are on opposing sides of active global conflicts (e.g., students with relatives killed in the Middle East alongside friends from Ramallah).
• Current Challenges: She observes that the intense divisiveness in society is now reflected on campus, creating a difficult environment for fostering dialogue across deep ideological lines.