Segrest is best known for her 1994 autobiographical work Memoir of a Race Traitor, which won the Editor's Choice Lambda Literary Award.

[2] Segrest has founded, served on the boards of, and consulted with a wide range of social justice organizations throughout her life and is a recognized speaker and writer on issues of sexism, racism, homophobia, classism, and other forms of oppression.

[5] Feminarians, including Segrest, saw writing as a force for political change, and the journal maintained a Southern feminist focus and was anti-sexist, anti-racist, anti-homophobic, and anti-classist.

Her book narrating her experience working against the Klan with North Carolinians Against Racist and Religious Violence (NCARRV) is Memoir of a Race Traitor, published by South End Press in 1994.

[8] Segrest's book, Born to Belonging: Writings on Spirit and Justice was published in 2002 and recounts her experiences in activism around the world.

Segrest co-edited Sing, Whisper, Shout, Pray: Feminist Strategies for a Just World (2003) with M. Jacqui Alexander, Lisa Albrect and Sharon Day.

In listing important feminist figures, lead singer Kathleen Hanna described the song as "analogous to a college syllabus".

The production premiered at Auburn University and dramatized Segrest's time as a student during the 1963-1964 school year in her hometown of Tuskegee, Alabama.