The success of the civil rights movement demanded extraordinary courage of ordinary people. During her short life, Ruby Doris Smith Robinson became one of the most important leaders in the black struggle for equality. By age 24, Robinson's intelligence, brashness, and bravery had elevated her to a top leadership role in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Cynthia Griggs Fleming's beautifully written biography of this incredible woman demonstrates that Robinson's activism wasn't limited to racial equality—she was an equally eloquent and powerful voice for women's rights. Fleming provides new insights into the success, failures, peculiar contradictions, and unique stresses of Robinson's life. This book will appeal to all readers interested in African American and women's history.

"By focusing on Ruby Doris Smith Robinson . . . Fleming offers an insightful look into the lives of young African-American women during the freedom struggle." - American Bookseller

"Fleming provides insight not only into Robinson's frustration at the time but also into how submerged gender and racial conflicts can affect group dynamics. Fleming lifts an important activist out of historical neglect while using her life as a base to discuss the concerns of young women like her, who were confronted by racism and sexism within their own organizations. This poignant account provides a glimpse into the life of an extraordinary woman and the prejudices against which she fought." - Publishers Weekly

"Fleming's work highlights the courage Ruby Doris brought to the many facets of her work with SNCC, her consistency in the face of external threats and internal organizational conflicts, and her unwavering commitment to the fight against oppression. In the examination of Ruby Doris' roles as activist, leader, student, wife, and mother, Fleming broadens her focus to include the complex issues of race and gender faced by black women activists during those years of struggle and change." - Booklist

"The real strength of Flemings' book is its examination of major issues in civil rights, such as SNCC's debate over whether to focus on direct action or voter registration, and whether nonviolence was a philosophy or a tactic." - CHOICE

"A superb and meticulous scholarship combined with a natural flair for writing." - Wisconsin Bookwatch

"With subtlety and complexity, Fleming shows us how Robinson struggled to control the centrifugal force of the new developments and ideas that overtook SNCC between 1964 and 1967." - Journal of American History

"With the publication of this excellent biography, Smith should begin to receive some of the credit she deserves for a life devoted to the civil rights movement. Soon We Will Not Cry is a history of SNCC as much as it is a biography of Smith. Especially valuable is Fleming's sensitive treatment of the issues of gender and sexual relations within SNCC. This is a work that should be read by every serious student of the civil rights movement." - Multicultural Review

"For anyone teaching young people who are beginning to make life choices and somehow dream of contributing to a more just world, there couldn't be a more important book." - National Women's Studies Association Journal

"This work deserves a serious reading by all persons intersted in the civil rights movement." - Journal of Southern History

"Cynthia Fleming paints an intricate portrait of female leadership in the modern Civil Rights movement. This biography of Ruby Doris Smith Robinson provides and illuminating explanation of the intersection of race, gender, and sex in a major civil rights organization. The book is well written and easy to follow. Anyone interested in the administrative history of the movement will enjoy this biography. This book also makes a valuable contribution to gender studies and to the literature of the Civil Rights movement." - Florida Historical Quarterly