ORCID Identifier(s)

0000-0001-6301-9567

Graduation Semester and Year

2019

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in History

Department

History

First Advisor

Stephanie Cole

Abstract

This thesis focuses on resistance strategies used by African American women in the aftermath of lynching in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It examines the ways in which those strategies were shared, modified, and deployed by black women activists throughout the Jim Crow Era and traces the connection to contemporary movements for social justice. The starting point for this study of generational change within African American women’s resistance to violence is the transatlantic anti-lynching campaign of Ida B. Wells and an examination of newspaper articles that detailed her actions while abroad with an eye to considering how her approach shaped the reception of her message. Also included in this work is a case study that examines the life of one woman and her family in the aftermath of lynching in order to understand the extent to which that event shaped their lives in the immediate aftermath and as they moved forward. As a result, the importance of family, church, and community to some survivors of racial violence is illuminated. A broader look at the actions of multiple women between 1892-1955 shows that black women in the aftermath of lynching manipulated the gendered language surrounding the ideology of male breadwinners to file civil cases when a male family member was lynched, adding to a collective knowledge of resistance strategies across generations. To trace these survivors’ stories, this work engages the use of various secondary and primary sources including newspapers, periodicals, and files from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Keywords

Resistance, Lynching, Women, African Americans, Jim Crow

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | History

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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