Sisters in motherhood(?): The politics of race and gender in lynching drama

Abstract

The founding of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching (ASWPL) was hailed as one of the most significant contributions to antilynching activism. Newspapers across the country commended the group’s courage and grace,1 and Black women (such as activist Nannie Burroughs) were pleased to see white women accept responsibility for changing public sentiment on mob violence. When considering the organization’s November 1930 Resolution, it is no wonder that Burroughs later referred to the ASWPL as "the most effective organization now working…"2 ASWPL members declared, "Distressed by the recent upsurge of [sic] lynchings, and noting that people still condone such crimes on the grounds that they are necessary to the protection of womanhood, we, a group of white women representing eight southern states, desire publicly to repudiate and condemn such defense of lynching, and to put ourselves definitely on record as opposed to this crime in every form and under all circumstances." They continue, "We are profoundly convinced that lynching is not a defense of womanhood or of anything else, but rather a menace to private and public safety…"3 Indeed, founder Jessie Daniel Ames reported, "convinced by the consideration of the facts," these women resolved "no longer to remain silent" as the crime of lynching was "done in their name."4.