Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

Tag: Joseph O. Jewell

White Women’s Role in School Segregation

2019-01-07

White American women have long played significant roles in maintaining racist practices. One sociologist calls the phenomenon “social mothering.”
The report from the Board delegation concluded, ‘[F]rom information received, through Parents and Citizens … more or less colored children have been smuggled into the schools set apart for the education of white children’ (OPSB, pp. 327-8).

2019-01-05

‘More or Less Colored Children’ After the OPSB [Orleans Parish School Board] meeting, [William O.] Rogers charged a delegation of Board members to investigate the allegations of race mixing at Bayou Road. He also instructed [Stephanie] Bigot to have each child ‘reputed to be of mixed race’ deliver to their parent or guardian ‘without delay’…
Other(ing) People’s Children: Social Mothering, Schooling, and Race in Late Nineteenth Century New Orleans and San Francisco

2019-01-05

I analyze two historical cases to show how racialized constructions of social mothering helped to maintain links between race and class. In both incidents, public opinion held white professional women responsible for ensuring the racial purity of white children’s public spaces and social identities.