The Shaping of Activist Recruitment and Participation: A Study of Women in the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement

This article focuses on the ways gendered experiences varied by race with regard to women's recruitment and participation in the civil rights movement of Mississippi. The author analyzes 13 interviews with both African American and white women who were connected to the movement. By privileging the voices of movement actors, this study begins to illuminate the ways recruitment and participation varied by race. Three types of women's participation are distinguished: (1) high-risk activism, (2) low-risk institutional, and (3) activist mothering and "women's work." Explanations for these different forms of participation are found in examining two primary patterns of recruitment.