THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN CIVIL WAR

The Role of Women in Civil War

The Role of Women in Civil War

Introduction

The civil rights movement describes a period in U.S. history when large numbers of ordinary people and organizations mobilized to destroy the legal segregation and second-class citizenship of African Americans, Latinos/as, Asian Americans, and indigenous peoples encoded in federal and state laws and enforced by the proliferation of violence at all levels of society and in every region of the country. The purpose of the civil rights movement was to secure economic and political equality, empowerment, and democracy.

Louie & Omatsu (2001) mention the civil rights movement is interconnected with the historical and ongoing human call for justice worldwide. In the 20th century alone, the civil rights movement was connected with the anti-lynching movement, Spanish Civil War resistance, the labor movement, tenant farmer organizing, Roosevelt's New Deal, Mohandas Gandhi and India's independence, the desegregation of U.S. military forces, anti-colonial movements in Africa and Asia, the American Indian Movement, the Chicano movement, the Asian Pacific Islander movement, the farmworkers' movement, the women's movement, the anti-war movement, the anti-apartheid movement, the Solidarity movement, liberation theology, the Sanctuary movement, gay liberation, environmental justice, and, even, some would argue, the tactics used in the anti-abortion and religious fundamentalist movements (Louie & Omatsu, 2001). This paper discusses the role of women in civil war in a concise and comprehensive way.

The Role of Women in Civil War: A Discussion

The civil rights movement can best be understood within the larger context of the Reconstruction Era (1865-1877), an attempt to reconstruct the U.S. economy and expand political democracy following the end of the Civil War in 1865. For more than 250 years, Africans were enslaved, and land was stolen from indigenous peoples and Mexico to create the United States (Louie & Omatsu, 2001). By 1865, more than 4 million formerly enslaved people were expected to transform themselves into free laborers and equal citizens with no land, no money, and no laws to protect their rights. They worked extremely hard and successfully to create their own societies and economies in a hostile environment.

Many of the events of the civil rights movement were organized and influenced by women and local leaders. The literature on leadership has begun to recognize the contributions of previously overlooked leaders. Women have played an important role throughout the civil rights struggles, as evidenced by the work of specific individuals, women's clubs, and political organizations. Local leaders have initiated and sustained movement activities, including negotiation with or resistance to the local power structure, placing them at risk without media attention or federal intervention (Linderman, 2006).

The Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956, the first significant protest of the later civil rights years, illustrates the involvement of women and local leaders. This boycott was developed by Jo Ann Robinson (1912-1992). Many women had been thrown off Montgomery, Alabama, buses when they defied segregation, including Robinson herself. When Robinson was president of the Woman's Political Council she formulated plans for a boycott to coincide ...