White Liberal Col President in Godwin, Sandra E

Godwin, Sandra E

ISBN 10: 0881467901 / ISBN 13: 9780881467901

Published by Mercer University Press, 2021

About this Item

White Liberal Col President in In englischer Sprache. pages.

Seller Inventory # BN240983

Bibliographic Details

• Title: White Liberal Col President in Godwin, Sandra E
• Publisher: Mercer University Press
• Publication Date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0881467901
• ISBN 13: 9780881467901
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 2021.
• Condition: gut
• Weight: 2000 grams

About this title

Synopsis

This book describes how the Georgia State College for Women YWCA's commitment to a critique of the status quo in Georgia was the major catalyst for college president Guy Herbert Wells to respond to its race reform efforts during the early civil rights era. It uses the perspective of the campus YWCA to show how higher education was a major site of civil rights struggle and how and why Wells learned to negotiate a middle political position between the white supremacist state and a radically progressive student organization. He tried to stay true to his own liberal values on race while working for governors opposed to civil rights reform, learning to survive by playing the middle ground as he responded to the race reform efforts of the YWCA and pressure from the white supremacist state. The book explores the complexities of political ideology in the South during the 1930s and 1940s and how Wells created space for progressive change and allowed the campus YWCA to function in the short term as a viable organization despite strong criticism from others, but also how playing the middle strengthened the institution’s racist foundation in the long term. It describes his transfer from South Georgia Teachers College to Georgia State College for Women and the race reform work of the student YWCA; the lessons he learned, including keeping a close watch on the organization, providing uneven support for it to keep its members under control, moving left when a liberal governor was in office, and staying left when it was safe; and how little has changed since his tenure. Annotation ©2021 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

About the Author

Sandra E. Godwin is professor of Sociology at Georgia College & State University in Milledgeville where she teaches courses in social theory, gender, social psychology, and food and agriculture. Godwin received her PhD in Sociology from North Carolina State University.