»I didn't rape that lady«: »Rasse«, Vergewaltigung und Zeugenschaft in den US-amerikanischen Südstaaten, 1930-1945. (German)

»I didn't rape that lady«: >Race<, Rape and Testimony in the American South, 1930-1945. (English)

ALABAMA; SOUTHERN States

Based on insights from the field of performance studies, the article discusses the ritual and symbolic aspects of legal proceedings against African American men accused of the rape of white women in the American South in the 1930s and 1940s. After outlining the history of legal and extralegal repression of African Americans' civil and due process rights from the late 19th century onward, the author analyzes two rape cases before Southern courts: the 1931 Scottsboro Boys case in Scottsboro, Alabama, and the 1941 case against Henry Daniels Jr. and Curtis C. Robinson in Mobile, Alabama. The social and cultural significance of the trials for affirming race and gender relations of the Jim Crow era are emphasized.