Journal of Women's History

Abstract:

This article examines the history of the all-female, interracial, interfaith, upper- and middle-class civil rights organization Wednesdays in Mississippi (WIMS), active from 1964 to 1970. Unlike more well-known, mass-mobilized, visible, and outspoken civil rights activism, WIMS sought to work behind the scenes to build personal relationships with southern women beginning during Freedom Summer and working through the War on Poverty. The participants of WIMS believed that they were equipped with a special ability as women to create interpersonal bridges between racially, religiously, and regionally diverse individuals. They hoped that creating these links would lead to stronger southern support for civil rights efforts. While limited in its ability to create large-scale change in fostering interracialism, WIMS was able to offer aid to Southerners and transform the racial consciousness of its over 100 northern members. In many ways this consciousness-raising was a precursor to feminist efforts of the mid-1960s.