Women in U. S. Race Riots (1/10/03; ASA, 10/16/03-10/19/03)

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.