Clenched Fists, Burning Crosses

By: South, Cris

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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1469691140
• ISBN13: 9781469691145
• Release Date: October 2025
• Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 8.0"