Southern Women Look at Lynching

Atlanta, Georgia: Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching, February, 1937.

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Softcover. First edition. Octavo. 29pp. Stapled red wrappers printed in black. Light fading on covers and a chip at the lower rear corner, else a very good copy. The pamphlet prints “A review of the work of the Association… presented to Central Council of the Association,” by Jessie Daniel Ames, executive director, and includes statistics about the membership of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching (ASWPL), including names of members, listed individually by state. The Association was founded in 1930 in Atlanta, Georgia by Ames, a Texas-born woman active in the suffrage and interracial reform movements. The ASWPL fought to prevent lynching by teaching southern whites that lynchings “were sanctioned murder, and the result of false chivalry” and to convince white women to refuse to play any role in that process. They were a segregated group, arguing that “only white women could influence other white women.” By 1940 membership totaled four million, focusing its work “in the five states where lynching was most frequent: Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida.” Ames ended the Association’s work in 1942, after a perceived reduction in mob violence and lynching. Very scarce. Jones. *Handbook of Texas Online*.

Item #469767

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Item #469767 Southern Women Look at Lynching. Jessie Daniel AMES.