'A call to honor': Rebecca Latimer Felton and white supremacy

Rebecca Latimer Felton, suffragist and reformer, was a fervent advocate of white supremacy and a believer in the use of lynching as social control. Her status as an elite white woman of the New South, the wife of a Georgia politician who served two terms in the U.S. Congress, as well as the protege of Populist leader Tom Watson, allowed her unusual access to public platforms and the press. Felton, a woman of extraordinary abilities, relished her power in Georgia politics and remained a force until her death. She was appointed as interim U.S. Senator in 1922, an office she held only two days. Her legacy is less one of reform than of her notoriety for her racial politics. This study examines her personality and her place in the New South political universe.