Who Is Rebecca Felton?

Apparently Harry S Truman was so displeased with the nuances and bothsided-ness of advice he was getting about the economy that he said, “Give me a one-handed economist!” Truman clearly didn’t want competing perspectives.  In the Age of the Heart, seeing more than one perspective is necessary. On the one hand we should celebrate the fact that there was a first woman senator--Rebecca Latimer Felton. But we might lament the fact that it didn’t occur until 1922. 

On the one hand we may celebrate the fact that Senator Felton advocated for prison reform, women’s suffrage, and educational improvements. According to Wikipedia, Felton favored “equal pay for equal work.” Pretty impressive, but I was wondering why the first woman senator, even with a symbolic appointment, wasn’t something that we learned about in school.

As I dug a little deeper, I was gobsmacked by some other facts. Again, according to Wikipedia: “The last former slave owner to serve in Congress was white supremacist and lynching advocate Rebecca Latimer Felton.” Lynching advocate? How is that position even conceivable? 

In 1898 Felton gave a speech in which she “urged an increase in lynching to protect rural white women from being raped by black men.” She added, “If it needs lynching to protect woman's dearest possession from the ravening human beasts – then I say lynch, a thousand times a week if necessary.” The depravity and evilness of her statements and beliefs make me think that on her death, she doesn’t need to pack a blanket. 

So, on the one hand, I appreciate and admire the fact that Felton was the trailblazing first woman senator. But on the other hand, I cannot reconcile her bigotry and hate. There is a duality of people and a great artist (or the first senator) can also be a horrible human. It will take some time to work through this dichotomy and I’ll continue to explore it in future weblogs.