Southern White Women’s Anti-Lynching Struggle: Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching, 1930-1942

Authors : Özgür ATMACA

Pages : 1-23

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Publication Date : 2023-06-15

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This article examines the anti-lynching struggle of Jessie Daniel Ames and the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching insert ignore into journalissuearticles values(ASWPL); in the 1930s, which aimed to bring an end to the practice of lynching in the southern states of the U.S. Originally a form of vigilante violence against various individuals, especially in the areas far from federal government’s control, lynching became a practice based on racial superiority in the late nineteenth century. Allegations of sexual assault by African American men against white women were often used to justify the actions of lynch mobs in the southern states. In this respect, alongside northern anti-lynching organizations, southern white women standing up against lynchings, which were supposedly carried out in the name of protecting them, made a significant contribution to the anti-lynching struggle in the first half of the twentieth century. This paper analyzes the actions taken by the organization under the leadership of Ames in order to change widely held assumptions about the lynchers and their victims.
Keywords : Lynching, Anti Lynching Struggle, Jessie Daniel Ames, ASWPL