United in gender, divided by race: Reconstruction of issue and identity by the association of southern women for the prevention of lynching

This essay begins to investigate the relationship between race and gender in communication through study of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching (1930‐1942). Organized by and composed exclusively of white women, this campaign managed to reconstruct lynching from a race issue to a gender issue. In doing so, the leader of the ASWPL, Jessie Daniel Ames, was successful at empowering white Southern women and uniting black and white women. However, due to failure to understand issues of the relationship between race and gender, the ASWPL perpetuated the very racism that was the cause for lynching.