This study explores how African American and white women in all-female and mixed gender organizations interpreted and dealt with racial issues and how individual women worked against racial injustice in South Carolina during and after World War II. It also examines the accomplishments and limitations of interracial activism as black and white women pursued sometimes similar but sometimes conflicting agendas. These women, many of whom had long been activists, were informed by a pamphlet entitled “Repairers of the Breach”: A Story of Interracial Cooperation Between Southern Women, 1935–1940. Pub ... More

This study explores how African American and white women in all-female and mixed gender organizations interpreted and dealt with racial issues and how individual women worked against racial injustice in South Carolina during and after World War II. It also examines the accomplishments and limitations of interracial activism as black and white women pursued sometimes similar but sometimes conflicting agendas. These women, many of whom had long been activists, were informed by a pamphlet entitled “Repairers of the Breach”: A Story of Interracial Cooperation Between Southern Women, 1935–1940. Published in December 1940 by the Commission on Interracial Cooperation (CIC), it highlighted the history of black and white women’s cross-racial alliances throughout the South. The phrase “Repairers of the Breach,” taken from the Bible, Isaiah 58:12, guided black and white women’s activism in South Carolina. Although some black and white women found it difficult, at times, to overcome their fear and distrust of each other to pursue activism across racial lines, they realized that it was the best opportunity to exact change. They therefore took careful but courageous steps as they embarked upon their journey to improve race relations and conditions for African Americans in their region.