Women in U. S. Race Riots
In historical, literary, journalistic, and cinematic accounts of
nineteenth and early-twentieth century U. S. race riots, white women are
often represented as playing a central - yet largely passive - role,
that of the "victim" to the "black beast rapist." As illustrated in the
days precipitating the 1906 Atlanta race riots, for instance, white
women's primary "active" role consisted of figuratively (or literally)
pointing their finger at their attacker - or sometimes any passable
substitute - and letting white men revenge their honor, primarily
through lynching and the destruction of African American property.
Whites (men and women) often used the alleged rape of white women to
justify the violent elimination of social and economic gains by African
Americans. But this panel seeks to explore other ways U. S. women
participated in race riots. Papers might consider (but are not
restricted to) the following questions:
Did white women play more active - even violent - roles in race riots?
What roles did black or other non-white women play?
In what other ways did women (of any race) serve as victims of and/or
respond to race riots?
Interdisciplinary approaches (including cinematic, literary, legal,
sociological, historical, or psychological) are especially welcome.
Although I am particularly interested in nineteenth and early-twentieth
century race riots, papers that take a comparative approach on women in
historical race riots and more recent ones will also be considered.
Please submit one-page abstracts via email to
jacary@bellsouth.net
or
Dr. Julie Cary Nerad
Georgia State University
Department of English
38 Peachtree Center Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30303.
Email submissions (in text) preferred. No attachments please. January
10, 2003 deadline.
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