Pure White Episode 4: White Women and the Lynching Myth
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Dec 18, 2023 Exploring the impact of white womanhood in media and society, linked to racial power dynamics. Discussing historical context of purity pledges and racial terror lynchings in 19th-century America. Debating the lynching myth between a journalist and a Women's Christian Temperance Union member. Highlighting complex relationships between white women, lynching, and alliances with colored men. Exploring interracial relationships and white womanhood in racial segregation.
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Purity As Political Power
- White women's claims to sexual purity became a political tool that expanded their moral authority beyond the home.
- That purity ideology also functioned as a racial boundary that reinforced white supremacy after Reconstruction.
Lynching As Racial Control
- The lynching myth linked alleged sexual danger from Black men to justifications for racial terror and economic suppression.
- Ron Ware explains lynching also enforced economic control and political exclusion of Black communities.
Ida B. Wells' Dangerous Reporting
- Ida B. Wells reported on lynching in her Memphis newspaper and faced threats, arson, and exile for exposing the truth.
- Her investigations directly challenged the sexual myths used to justify mob violence.