The Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching: Clara Cox correspondence with Jessie Daniel Ames

This exhibit, curated by Anna Broadwell-Gulde, is dedicated to the political activism of Clara Ione Cox (1879-1940), chairman of the North Carolina Council of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching. Quaker minister for twenty-one years of the Springfield Meeting in High Point, North Carolina, Clara Cox lived a life in the service of others. However, most of her political activism has gone undocumented. This exhibit is an effort to display Clara's commitment to speaking out against lynching in North Carolina and to organizing members of her community, locally and regionally, to support the efforts of the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching. As such, this exhibit consists of three main documents: a letter from Clara to the Sheriffs of North Carolina, commending them for their actions in preventing lynchings in the state, a letter from C.C. Spaulding to Clara, asking her for character references for several black men held in a Greensboro jail, and a letter from Jessie Daniel Ames to Clara, entreating her to hold a meeting for the North Carolina Council to discuss strategies for the upcoming year. 

The exhibit is curated by Anna Broadwell-Gulde. All letters and photographs are held in the Friends Historical Collection at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. 

Credits

Friends Historical Collection, Guilford College