What kind of mother is she?: From Margaret Garner to Rosa Lee Ingram to Mamie Till to the Murder of Korryn Gaines

This paper centers the state-sanctioned murder of Korryn Gaines to explore Black motherhood and Black women's access to self-defense as mothers. Beginning in the 1850s we examine three campaigns for Black mothers who defended themselves and historicize the social media "dragging" of Korryn Gaines to explore the cultural myths marshaled to tell a journalistic story about her life. These myths conceal the history of Black female radical self-defense and pathologize Black mothers' political action. We debunk: 1) caricatures of Black motherhood, 2) media sense-making about Gaines, and 3) appeals to state sovereignty and prurient interest in Black reproduction.