Necessary Trouble by Drew Faust Harvard President Autobiography — page 1

Necessary Trouble: Growing Up at

Midcentury

Drew Gilpin Faust

A Reflective Memoir

Necessary Trouble by Drew Faust Harvard President Autobiography — page 2

Introduction

This memoir traces the formative years of Drew Gilpin Faust, from her upbringing in the

segregated South to her emergence as a historian and activist during the social upheavals of

the 1960s.

Necessary Trouble by Drew Faust Harvard President Autobiography — page 3

CHAPTER 1: THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY

I was born into a world of prescribed roles and hushed expectations in Virginia’s

Shenandoah Valley. My family, the Gilpins, were part of a white Southern elite that viewed

history not as a subject to be studied, but as an inheritance to be maintained. My mother,

Catharine Mellick, was the architect of my early social education, teaching me the intricate

'rules of the game'—how to sit, how to speak, and, most importantly, how to be a 'lady.' But

even as a small child, I felt a simmering friction. The quiet elegance of our horse-country life

was built upon a foundation of racial and class hierarchy that I didn't yet have the words to

name, but which I felt in the way our Black household staff moved through our home with

practiced invisibility.

Necessary Trouble by Drew Faust Harvard President Autobiography — page 4

CHAPTER 2: THE LETTER TO EISENHOWER

At age nine, the friction turned to action. In 1957, moved by the reports of the struggle for

school integration, I sat down and wrote a letter to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. I told

him that I was a little white girl and that I thought it was wrong that Black children couldn't

go to the same schools I did. I asked him to 'please help.' This was my first act of 'necessary

trouble.' I didn't tell my parents; I simply found a stamp and sent it. It was a moment of

moral clarity that put me at odds with the segregated society of Virginia and the

expectations of my family. I was beginning to realize that the world I was raised to inherit

was one I was increasingly determined to change.

Necessary Trouble by Drew Faust Harvard President Autobiography — page 5

CHAPTER 3: EDUCATION AND AWAKENING

Concord Academy in Massachusetts offered a window into a different reality. Away from the

strictures of Virginia, I encountered teachers and peers who challenged my assumptions and

encouraged my intellectual curiosity. But it was my time at Bryn Mawr College, starting in

1964, that truly radicalized me. The campus was alive with the energy of the 1960s. I studied

history with a fervor, looking for answers to the questions of power and inequality that had

haunted my childhood. The Civil Rights Movement was no longer something I read about in

letters; it was a movement I joined. I traveled to Selma in 1965, an experience that shattered

my remaining illusions about the safety and justice of the American status quo.

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CHAPTER 4: THE STORM OF 1968

By my senior year at Bryn Mawr, the world seemed to be coming apart. The Vietnam War

had escalated, and with it, my commitment to anti-war activism. We occupied buildings, we

marched, we debated the very foundations of American democracy. 1968 was a year of

profound loss—the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy—but

also of profound determination. As I stood on the cusp of graduation, I realized that my

education wasn't just about obtaining a degree; it was about equipping myself for the

lifelong work of challenging injustice. I was no longer the polite girl from Virginia; I was a

historian in the making, shaped by the necessary trouble of my youth.

Necessary Trouble by Drew Faust Harvard President Autobiography — page 7

TIMELINE OF FORMATIVE YEARS

1947:

Born in New York City, raised in Shenandoah Valley, VA.

1957:

Writes letter to President Eisenhower regarding civil rights.

1960-64:

Attends Concord Academy.

1964:

Enters Bryn Mawr College.

1965:

Participates in the Selma to Montgomery marches.

1968:

Graduates from Bryn Mawr amidst national anti-war protests.

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Necessary Trouble by Drew Faust Harvard President Autobiography

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