“History is written by the victors”
is a popular saying in our society today. It still rings true, whether we are
aware of this fact or not. In some cases, these “victors” are actually the
social media that is backed by political power. Rebecca Latimer Felton is
misrepresented in our history as being strongly in favor of lynching. Lynching
of blacks was a large issue present in society during the early 1900s and was a cruel
form of vigilante justice. The majority of individuals in our society are
unaware or simply ignorant of the fact that there is more to Felton than meets
the eye. In-fact, the media still misrepresents women today to
generate front page headlines and manipulate public opinion. This method
effectively kills two birds with one stone; the media profits from the
high-traffic of the half-true subject, and public opinion is changed in favor
of either a rich political power, or a popular social movement. For example,
the media will take excerpts from political speeches or books completely out of
context in order to represent the subject matter in a certain positive or
negative light.
In
Felton’s Wikipedia article, I was shocked at how leaving out some information
about a person can give you such a different perception of that individual. The
article stated that Felton was: “a prominent society woman; an advocate of
prison reform, women’s suffrage and educational modernization; and one of the
few prominent women who spoke in favor of lynching” (Wiki pg1). While all the
things stated in the article are true, I frowned upon this article. The initial
summary of Felton made her look like a monster, when that was simply not the
case. I had previously read the book “Southern Horrors” by Crystal N. Feimster,
and I knew a lot about Felton just by reading chapter 3 and 4 of that book. She
had a change of heart about the treatment of black women in 1881, and this was
clearly shown in “Southern Horrors”. “Rape was commonplace. Worse, it was
interracial: white guards raped black female convicts, forcing many of them to
give birth to ‘illegitimate babies’ of mixed race…….Felton revealed a shift in
her ideas about black women’s sexuality” (Feimster pg 65). Felton realized that
black and white women both equally deserved better treatment in the south, and race
should NEVER be a factor when it comes to protecting women in our society. The anti-rape moment was a very disturbing chapter
to read, as society was extremely biased towards race. A black man raping a
white woman was an outrage, and caused lynch mobs to react quickly and
violently, even if the black man was innocent and the white woman made it up. “Lynching
of black men would protect white womanhood and keep blacks in their place” (Feimster pg 77). The white elitist population had their mind set on justifying
this vigilante justice. On the other hand, if a white man raped a black woman,
the reaction from the public was fairly passive. Felton tried to pass a
reformatory bill to get female convicts away from male-dominated prisons, and
those who opposed the bill simply insisted that these black convicts weren’t
human, they were fiendish beings! “Opponents insisted that black female
convicts were ‘the veriest fiends that walked the earth;’ altogether deserving
of sexual violence and beyond reform……black men and women freed from the
discipline of slavery were reverting to their “natural” primitive, brutish ways” (Feimster
pg 67). Felton fought valiantly against this male dominated society after
pointing out this biased system of rape, profit, and corruption. I often look
back on acts these men committed and wonder what in the world they were
thinking when they thought these actions were even remotely justified.
Felton
joined the WCTU, a women’s rights movement, in 1886 mainly to challenge the
double standard that left southern women unprotected. Unfortunately when you
are associated with a political figure such as your own husband, as well as an
organization like the WCTU, the actions of the WCTU’s higher powers can be
pinned on its lesser members. I admired the WCTU’s brilliance when in 1890 the
WCTU took advantage of the black rapist/lynching myth in order to catch the
attention of women in the south and make them join the movement, which is
ironic considering the fact that the WCTU actually opposes lynching. This
action was one of many things in Felton’s past that may have caused writers of
the Wikipedia article about Felton to portray her as a supporter of lynching.
Quite the opposite, as stated by Feimster: “Felton and other southern women
resisted white men’s attempts to keep them at home with threats of what lurked
outside, White women did not lock themselves in their homes; instead, they
actively tried to manipulate the rape hysteria and the language of lynching in
their struggle for women’s rights” (Feimster pg 86).
Felton was not the elitist monster
that I read about in the Wikipedia article, she was a misunderstood woman that
was simply using the biggest public issue at the time of her fight for women’s rights
to strengthen her argument and help create more support from the public. No
movement can be successful if it doesn’t have a large backing from a large
number of members. I believe that Felton did what she felt was right at the
time and for that I respect her decision.
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