White Women and the Fight for Equality in the Southern United States (1920-1964)
From the late 19th century to the 1960s, racial segregation and patriarchy were the main pillars of society in the southern United States. If the modern Civil Rights Movement that led in a few years to the historic abolition of segregation by the federal government came as a surprise to many America...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
TELEMME - UMR 6570
2008-09-01
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| Series: | Amnis |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/amnis/646 |
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| Summary: | From the late 19th century to the 1960s, racial segregation and patriarchy were the main pillars of society in the southern United States. If the modern Civil Rights Movement that led in a few years to the historic abolition of segregation by the federal government came as a surprise to many Americans at the time, as the so-called Solid South was adamant in its determination to maintain its racist institutions forever, it was indeed welcomed by a significant minority of southerners as the logical outcome of a painful reform movement that had started decades earlier in the region. Unlike the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s that was led and popularized by charismatic male black leaders, the struggle for civil rights that preceded it was mostly led by white reformers, among whom women played a disproportionately important role, not always recognized as such. These white women, born to segregationist white families, all experienced a process of questioning that led them to challenge white supremacy and to commit themselves to the fight for racial equality. The history of this peculiar brand of activism is characterized by a steady process of radicalization, from the first efforts at interracial cooperation within the frame of segregation in the 1920s, to the building of the « beloved community » by the students of the 1960s. The present article shows that, in the context of the segregated South, white women’s activism was in many respects more radical than that of their male counterparts in their time. |
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| ISSN: | 1764-7193 |