Penny was born in New York City but lived most of her childhood in Manchuria, Czechoslovakia, and Germany and was raised by parents who had a deep commitment to social justice. She attended Swarthmore College for a year before dropping out, at the age of 18, to join the civil rights movement. She worked for SNCC from 1962 - 1965 in Georgia and Mississippi and was the first white woman to work in a SNCC field project.

Holding a degree from the Frontier School of Midwifery in Kentucky, she lives with her husband David Martin in Northern Vermont. She is a nurse-midwife and has long been active in maternal-child health. She teaches Vermont school children about movement history at every available opportunity, and also works with "One by One,” an organization dedicated to fostering dialogue between children of Holocaust survivors and children of German bystanders.

Hear what she says about how being in the movement affected her life and her outlook.

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                                                                                                             Penny and her family