THE SHAPING OF ACTIVIST RECRUITMENT AND PARTICIPATION - A STUDY OF WOMEN IN THE MISSISSIPPI CIVIL-RIGHTS-MOVEMENT

This article focuses on the ways gendered experiences varied by race w ith regard to women's recruitment and participation in the civil right s movement of Mississippi. The author analyzes 13 interviews with both African American and white women who were connected to the movement. By privileging the voices of movement actors, this study begins to ill uminate the ways recruitment and participation varied by race. Three t ypes of women's participation are distinguished: (I) high-risk activis m, (2) low-risk institutional, and (3) activist mothering and ''women' s work'' Explanations for these different forms of participation are f ound in examining two primary patterns of recruitment.