White Fright: The Sexual Panic at the Heart of America's Racist History
Jane Dailey
Basic Books/Hachette Book Group
At every stage of the long struggle for African American rights, sexual anxiety played a central role. Even before independence, American colonies enacted anti-miscegenation laws forbidding marriage and sex across the color line which later lead to restrictions on all other forms of social contact. In this urgent investigation, Dailey examines how white fear of Black sexuality found expression in some of the most contentious episodes of American history. White Fright offers a bold new take on one of the most confounding threads running through American history — one that clearly remains unresolved.