"WE WON'T GIVE UP ON THIS UNTIL WE GET IT": THE WOMEN'S JURY MOVEMENT IN MISSISSIPPI, 1938-1968

After the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment in 1920, many former suffragists and women’s rights activists began statewide campaigns for jury service for women. While the women’s suffrage movement has been studied extensively, the subsequent movement for women’s jury service has largely been overlooked within historical scholarship. Mississippi, which became the last state to legalize women’s jury service in 1968, has been notably overlooked in historiography despite its connection to the civil rights movement. Women’s organizations including the League of Women Voters and the Mississippi Federation of Business and Professional Women’s Clubs spent decades advocating for women’s jury service. However, they struggled to find success. This thesis will argue that while activists advocated tirelessly for women’s jury service in Mississippi, it was the civil rights movement that helped lead to the jury movement’s success. As civil rights advancements were made during the 1960s, more legislators began supporting women’s jury rights. This newfound support was likely not coincidental but the effect of segregationist politicians searching for ways to resist civil rights. Legislators expected white women jurors to uphold the racial status quo. I will use primary and secondary sources to show the arguments for and against women’s jury service. These sources also demonstrate the work of jury activists and the complicated history of the women’s jury movement. By using these sources, I will show how the changes happening in Mississippi helped lead to legislation legalizing women’s jury service.