The border states between the North and South faced a migration of African Americans attempting to begin a life anywhere except under the oppression of Jim Crow and the bleak conditions of the postbellum South. As extremist movements and relational events occurred throughout the nation, urban areas experienced a renaissance of black culture. Was this period truly the “birth of a nation?” As black culture graced America with music, art, and literature, white Protestant women attempted to gain equality within their sphere of achieved status of a fraternal hierarchy. Through Kathleen Blee’s extensive research and publication of Women of the Klan, a wealth of information can be obtained regarding women’s roles in politics, education, and
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Although Blee’s bias against the extremist group is obvious, she tactfully addresses the accomplishments of the women of Ku Klux Klan. Blee argues that “it was financial opportunism that shaped the Klan 's rebirth and a sophisticated marketing system that fueled its phenomenal growth.”[1] Although Klanswomen supported the racial and religious prejudices of their fraternal counterpart, women of the Klan also incorporated various social and political groups into their racial supremacy ideology. However, women were able to muster large groups of women throughout the states, thereby uniting women and organizing political and economic influence, which “expressed feminist aspirations along with their xenophobia and …show more content…
Harvard scholar, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., documents the impact of the Jim Crow era on urban black culture. Oscar Micheaux’s reactionary film, Within Our Gates was a rebuttal to D.W. Griffith’s depiction of the violence against women. The attempted rape of Evelyn Preer’s character, Sylvia Landry, by an older white man, portrays the harsh reality of the repulsive acts which occurred during slavery. After her blouse has been ripped, a birthmark is revealed, thereby exposing the Sylvia the daughter her fathered during the rape of a young woman previously. While the women play central roles in the film, each depiction calls for the protection of women from the opposing
Although Blee’s bias against the extremist group is obvious, she tactfully addresses the accomplishments of the women of Ku Klux Klan. Blee argues that “it was financial opportunism that shaped the Klan 's rebirth and a sophisticated marketing system that fueled its phenomenal growth.”[1] Although Klanswomen supported the racial and religious prejudices of their fraternal counterpart, women of the Klan also incorporated various social and political groups into their racial supremacy ideology. However, women were able to muster large groups of women throughout the states, thereby uniting women and organizing political and economic influence, which “expressed feminist aspirations along with their xenophobia and …show more content…
Harvard scholar, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., documents the impact of the Jim Crow era on urban black culture. Oscar Micheaux’s reactionary film, Within Our Gates was a rebuttal to D.W. Griffith’s depiction of the violence against women. The attempted rape of Evelyn Preer’s character, Sylvia Landry, by an older white man, portrays the harsh reality of the repulsive acts which occurred during slavery. After her blouse has been ripped, a birthmark is revealed, thereby exposing the Sylvia the daughter her fathered during the rape of a young woman previously. While the women play central roles in the film, each depiction calls for the protection of women from the opposing