Southern Methodist Women and Social Justice
Southern Methodist Women and Social Justice
Interracial Activism in the Long Twentieth Century
Highlighting the contributions of Methodist women in advocating for progressive reform from 1900 to the present
This book tells the stories of nine southern Methodist women, who, inspired by their faith, carried forward the spirit of progressivism. They fought for racial equality, challenged white male supremacy, and addressed class oppression. The white and Black women featured here responded to local human rights violations with compassion, advocating for expanded and more diverse private and public services in the United States.
Motivated by a modernist interpretation of the Gospel authorized by the tenets of Methodism, these women expanded notions of southern identity and womanhood. Their actions supported the Black freedom struggle and promoted women’s rights, gaining momentum after the 1939 rise of the Women’s Society of Christian Service—the largest Protestant women’s organization in the country. Grounded in research from church archives and interviews, this book shows how Methodist traditions provided spiritual, theological, and doctrinal support for social justice work among laywomen and female clergy. With Methodism as a case in point, this book expands the historical narrative of twentieth-century reform movements to include the South’s progressive religious traditions.
Contributors: Chelsea Elizabeth Hodge | Fran Wescott | Janet Lynn Allured | Randall M. Miller | Jeanette Stokes | M. Kathryn Armistead | Stanley Harrold | Rachel Sauls | Helen R. Neinast | Jennifer Copeland | Katie W. Powell
A volume in the series Southern Dissent, edited by Stanley Harrold and Randall M. Miller
“A gem of a book that adds significantly to the study of American history, American religious history, and Methodist history.”—Alice G. Knotts, author of Fellowship of Love: Methodist Women Changing American Racial Attitudes, 1920-1968
“An important contribution to our understanding of women’s progressive activism in the long twentieth century. The multiplicity of injustices these women challenged, plus their positions close to the center of their denomination, say a great deal not only about Methodism but also about a period in American Christianity that was different from our own.”—Jennifer Ritterhouse, author of Discovering the South: One Man’s Travels through a Changing America in the 1930s
Janet Allured is retired professor of history and women’s studies at McNeese State University and is currently adjunct professor of women’s history at the University of Arkansas. She is the author of Remapping Second-Wave Feminism: The Long Women’s Rights Movement in Louisiana, 1950–1997.
M. Kathryn Armistead is the managing editor of Methodist Review. Her many books include Nevertheless She Leads: Postcolonial Women’s Leadership for the Church.
