Black Women's Rural Activism: Events

Arkansas State University professor Cherisse Jones-Branch’s new book, Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps: Black Women’s Activism in Rural Arkansas, 1914-1965, was recently published by the University of Arkansas Press. Jones-Branch signals many of the pivotal episodes that shaped the contours of that activism. These included responses to racial violence during World War I; efforts to help destitute African Americans during the 1927 Mississippi River flood; an increasing presence in statewide and national forums and organizations during World War II and after; and work with civil rights organizations, such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in the 1960s.