The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002 Page: 185
741 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Book Reviews
movement from gaining a strong foothold there. Nevertheless, a vigorous and
systemic campaign emerged, one that included both proponents of "the women
question" and opponents known as "antis."
In Southern Strategies Elna C. Green, professor of history at Sweet Briar College in
Virginia, has collected data from more than eight hundred female activists to pro-
file the rank-and-file membership. She argues that previous studies of state and
regional leadership present a distorted picture of southern suffragism, portraying
advocates as privileged elites with a strong sense of noblesse oblige. Rather, many
were also members of the urban middle class, including both white and black
southerners. Additionally, Green evaluates the varieties of southern strategies,
from demands for a states rights approach by Kate Gordon of Louisiana to appeals
for a federal amendment by NAWSA. Using class, race, and gender analysis, she
further differentiates between the suffragists and their opposition. The "antis"
were often "the product of the South's traditional ruling elite," while the suffrag-
ists were frequently "part of the emerging national urban economy" (p. xv).
Green challenges the role of racism in shaping the southern suffrage move-
ment. During its first wave, 1890-1900, supporters viewed suffrage as a remedy
to "the Negro problem." But eventually most southern legislatures rejected the
female vote as "an inadequate tool of white supremacy" (p. 12). Beginning in
1910 a second wave proved more permanent. Every southern state established a
suffrage organization with an active membership. But why the renewed interest?
Green concludes that the Progressive movement, with its commitment to indus-
trial and urban reform, produced an army of new women in the New South.
After years of club work, southern women now demanded something in their
own behalf-the vote.
As a companion to New Women of the New South (1993) by Marjorie Spruill
Wheeler, Southern Strategies provides a more complete picture of the suffrage move-
ment in the South. Due to its topical arrangement, however, the book suffers from
weak organization and repetition of facts. A Virginia case study chapter does help
to reassemble the disparate pieces, while an extensive appendix offers statistical
profiles of state activists. Regrettably, the publisher omitted eight pages of notes,
which distracted from an otherwise attractive, well-researched book. A stronger
chronology and careful proofing would improve this fine first book. Nonetheless,
by focusing on a remarkable group of women that Carrie Chapman Catt once
called "those great-souled southern suffragists," Green introduces a new dimen-
sion that should be of interest to students of social and women's history.
San Antonio MARY L. KELLEY
A Genealogy of Dissent: Southern Baptzst Protest in the Twentieth Century. By David
Stricklin. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999. Pp. xvii+229.
Preface, introduction, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN o-8131-2o93-4.
$36.oo, cloth.)
If Martin Luther referred to the biblical book of James as "a right strawy epis-
tle," perhaps one will be forgiven for finding a bit-perhaps even a bale-of185
2001
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002, periodical, 2002; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101222/m1/193/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.