The League of Women Voters

Abstract

This chapter offers an in-depth study of the League of Women Voters (LWV). It examines the history of the association, and its efforts to avoid engaging with the issue of racial integration. While acknowledging their association’s responsibility to take a stand on this issue, the leadership of the LWV nonetheless recognized that the voluntary nature of participation in their association made it difficult to simply impose integration of their branches and support for racial justice on their members. Moreover, the national leadership recognized that significant differences in local contexts meant that a uniform position on racial integration would be difficult. In practice, this frequently resulted in the national leadership yielding to the autonomy of their local branch membership and allowing them to decide their own position. This chapter argues that integration created a threat to the consensus-based branch/national relationship that resulted in a crippling paralysis on the issue of racial justice.