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“Sweet Little (White) Girls”? Sex and Fantasy Across the Color Line and the Contestation of Patriarchal White Supremacy

2004; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 37; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10665680490491506

1547-3457

Phoebe Godfrey,

American Political and Social Dynamics

The presence of the Little Rock Nine at Little Rock's Central High in September 1957 as a result of Brown vs. the Board of Education evoked anger, fear, and even panic among some parts of the white community, and many white women and girls responded with near hysteria. This article seeks to answer why. What was it about integration that provoked such a response from many Whites, and especially from white females? By briefly examining both the history of white racism and the socio-political context of the 1950s, this article argues that what Little Rock Whites, and in particular white females, were responding to was the fear of miscegenation. Yet this was not exactly the same fear of miscegenation that had spread throughout the South in the post-Civil War period in which white woman were supposedly at peril from the "black male rapist." This fear of miscegenation, it is argued, had a new twist and that new twist came from the white women and girls themselves. Based on an analysis of the actions of individual white female Central High students from the perspectives of race, class, and gender, this article argues that not only were race relations in a state of flux but so were gender and class relations, giving Little Rock's "sweet little (white) girls" a pivotal role in the events surrounding the desegregation of Central High.