Conflict in the Country: Lesbian Feminism, Race, and Southernness

Between 1970 and the early 1990s, groups of women, some lesbian-identified, others woman- or feminist-identified, relocated from towns and cities to rural settings, hoping to establish a way of life that better fit their personal politics and freed them from the fetters of capitalism, patriarchy, and urban life.  Looking for inexpensive land and favorable agricultural climates, many collectives moved to the South -- rural Missouri, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Florida all saw land groups established in the 1970s and 80s.  Amidst their own personal and political revolution, members of these lands also found themselves face-to-face with the politics and history of the very land they settled.  Race and class quickly surfaced in conflicts between these lands and their neighbors, as well as in divisive disputes amongst their members.  This paper examines race and land conflicts at Camp Sister Spirit in Ovett, Mississippi and the Sassafras land community in Ponca, Arkansas, to suggest a queer Southern relationship to land that blends race, gender, and sexual identity.  The women of Camp Sister Spirit and Sassafras experience the land they inhabit as the central source of danger and destruction in their lives, and simultaneously as focal point for their spiritual growth and political well-being.  Tracing their different stories complicates our understanding of the history of the queer South.