Race, Gender, and Power : Black Women, White Women, and Racial Segregation in the Southern United States (1920-1970)

Abstract

The experience of southern women in the 20th century is distinct from that of American women in general, just as the history of the segregated South is from that of the rest of the nation. The doctrine of white supremacy, which permeated southern society, politics, and culture from the end of Reconstruction to the 1960s, rested not only on racism but also on a rigid patriarchal order, in which white women were to play a key role as guardians of the white race, while black women were relegated to the lowest level of society. The culture of segregation thus drove a wedge between black and white women, the latter belonging to the group responsible for the former’s oppression, and the two being submitted in different ways to the power and authority of white men. These conditions account for the fact that the women who became engaged in the struggle for racial equality in the region did so separately at first, and then joined their efforts in the civil rights movement. Moreover, owing to the combination of race and gender oppression inherent in segregationist culture, the women who challenged racism were bound to undermine the gender norms that had been imposed on them by segregation in the process. However, if the participation of black and white women in the civil rights movement proved as empowering to both groups, it did not foster a strong sense of solidarity among them. Indeed, the experience of southern women remained fraught with contradictions and marked by a fundamental paradox: due to their respective statuses in southern society, the struggle for racial justice drew black and white women together while estranging them at the same time.