• Conservative• Focus on a black elite• Acceptance of ‘true

womanhood’• Capitulation to middle

class values• Sentimental and

unchallenging• Legitimizes inequality

?

Miscegenation

• Anti-miscegenation laws in US until 1967

• Criminalised inter-racial marriage

• Sometimes banned cohabitation or sexual relations

• Ruled as unconstitutional by supreme court in 1967

May 18, 1896: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation in America was constitutional.

In Mississippi, fewer than 9,000 of the 147,000 voting-age African Americans were registered after 1890.

In Louisiana, where more than 130,000 black voters had been registered in 1896, the number had plummeted to 1,342 by 1904.

I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.

Abraham Lincoln in the first Lincoln-Douglas debate, 1858.

“white” is not a self-evident category

Noel Ignatiev, ‘Immigrants and Whites’

“The problem of the nation”, continued Dr Gresham, “is not what men will do with the negro, but what will they do with the reckless, lawless white men who murder, lynch and burn their fellow-citizens.”

“To be,” continued Iola, “the leader of a race to higher planes of thought and action, to teach men clearer views of life and duty, and to inspire their souls with loftier aims, is a far greater privilege than it is to open the gates of material prosperity and fill every home with sensuous enjoyment.”

“But it does rile me ter see dese mean white men comin' down yere an' settin' up dere grog-shops, tryin' to fedder dere nests sellin' licker to pore culled people. Deys de bery kine ob men dat used ter keep dorgs to ketch de runaways. I'd be chokin' fer a drink 'fore I'd eber spen' a cent wid dem, a spreadin' dere traps to git de black folks' money.”

“To be born white in this country is to be born to an inheritance of privileges, to hold in your hands the keys that open before you the doors of every occupation, advantage, opportunity, and achievement.”