Freedom Courts: An Analysis of Black Women’s Divorce in Attala County During Mississippi’s Anti-Divorce Campaign, 1890–1940

Abstract

The essay argues that divorce, as a legal maneuver, provided Black women with the opportunity tochallenge oppression within the household while simultaneously pushing back against broader ef-forts to curtail access to divorce. Framed within the New Negro Era, the article analyzes the compet-ing realities of divorce as both a racialized political issue and an internal struggle for independence.Utilizing newspapers and divorce petitions, the article captures how divorce gave Black women avoice and a platform in which they could declare independence in a society that was historicallyknown for its suppression of African Americans.