Clenched Fists, Burning Crosses (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781469691152)

Inspired by the horrors of the Greensboro Massacre, Cris South penned Clenched Fists, Burning Crosses as part of the noted Feminary collective. The book, a thinly fictionalized representation of her own life and activism, centers on Jessie, a working-class printer whose antiracist and anti-Klan activism come to the attention of Klan members, with harrowing results. Jessie's story mirrors that of the author's and offers a vision of what multiple intersectional coalitions of oppressed people look like: lesbian feminists, Black activists, and, perhaps most memorably, a woman who confronts her abuser swinging an axe, Lizzie Borden style, to reclaim her agency.

Although Jessie's suffering--and the suffering of the women around her--is stark in its realism, the book ends with a celebration of both resistance and love. This is the novel's distinctive contribution: it refuses abjection and claims the healing power of political resistance and coalition.

Author: Cris South
ISBN-10: 1469691159
ISBN-13: 9781469691152
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Language: English
Published: 09/23/2025
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
Size: 8.00h x 5.00w x 1.00d