“I don’t want to leave the South!” Minnie Bruce Pratt and southern identity

This article considers Minnie Bruce Pratt and her southern identity. Through an analysis of her personal writings, poetry, and reflections on her own life, I explore the formation of lesbian activism in concert with southern feminine identity. My goal is to expose the risk of a continued reliance on southern tropes that work to silence variations in southern womanhood. What is striking in the political moment of 2025 is understanding that Pratt's work emanated from a southern upbringing and southern identity that she never abandoned.