Professor Elizabeth Gillespie McRae discusses her book, Mothers of Massive Resistance. We begin with the shocking history of Virginia’s Racial Integrity Law which sought to identify citizens attempting to “pass” as white and how this law served to discipline Segregationist ideologies. Next, we look into how women found racist political power in local school boards, PTA, and other organizations to define the story of Jim Crow and censor textbooks. Finally, we jump to the Northern racism of the post-Brown decision to integrate schools as evidenced by the Anti-Busing crusades of upper class suburban white mothers.
Elizabeth Gillespie McRae is the Creighton Sossoman Professor of History at Western Carolina University where she also co-directs the Appalachian Oral History Project. Professor McRae is the author of Mothers of Massive Resistance: White Women and the Politics of White Supremacy.
