Investigates the place of women from the perspective of race, class, and gender

The history of Alabama has been told, but most often in terms of white men and their politics and economics. Now a more complex story of the state is emerging from the shadows of history in a new book that investigates the place of women from the perspective of race, class, and gender. Stepping Out of the Shadows, is a compilation of articles first presented at the 1990 Alabama Women’s History Forum in Birmingh, and edited by Mary Martha Thomas. The writers discuss the lives of women in antebellum Alabama and reexamine the roles of both black and white women as missionaries during Reconstruction, as reformers and suffrage leaders in the Progressive era, and as members of the state legislature in the 20th century.
 

Mary Martha Thomas is Professor of History (retired) at Jacksonville State University.

“This volume lives up to its claim of bringing Alabama women ‘out of the shadows.’ From the antebellum era to the 1990s, Alabama women have truly been an active, powerful form in history.”
—Journal of Southern History

“A valuable contribution to the ongoing work of recording the long-neglected history of southern women.”
 –Marjorie Spruill Wheeler
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