Barrier Breakers, Reluctant Royalty: Predominantly White Institutions and the Racial-Gender Politics of Campus Representation, 1948–1968

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  In Roundtable Session: Mass Education and Access Tensions

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the racial and gender politics surrounding homecoming or winter carnival beauty queen selection at PWCUs (Predominantly White Colleges and Universities) during the late Jim Crow and early Civil Rights era. On a number of college campuses underrepresented black students seized opportunities to elect black women as homecoming or winter carnival queens despite prevailing traditions of selecting middle-class white women for these positions and titles.

Author

• Richard M. Breaux, University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse