Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy

Join us at the end of February to discuss Elizabeth McRae’s compelling history of how white women have ‘tended the gardens of segregation’.

“Examining racial segregation from 1920s to the 1970s, Mothers of Massive Resistance explores the grassroots workers who maintained the system of racial segregation and Jim Crow. For decades in rural communities, in university towns, and in New South cities, white women performed myriad duties that upheld white over black: censoring textbooks, denying marriage certificates, deciding on the racial identity of their neighbors, celebrating school choice, canvassing communities for votes, and lobbying elected officials. They instilled beliefs in racial hierarchies in their children, built national networks, and experimented with a color-blind political discourse. Without these mundane, everyday acts, white supremacist politics could not have shaped local, regional, and national politics the way it did or lasted as long as it has.”

For this February Book Club, we are thrilled to have Peter Piazza, Doctoral Fellow at the Center for Equity facilitating the discussions (you also know him from the School Desegregation Notebook and the great news round-ups he shares with Integrated Schools!).

How Book Club Works:

  • Register for one of the following sessions by clicking the date you prefer
  • Invite your friends! Post on your social media!
  • Get ahold of the book/readings/podcast/videos
  • Read/Listen/View
  • Join the video-conference discussion at the given time and talk! (These sessions are kept small so as to encourage real conversation…)