Scholars characterize activists in the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union in one of two ways: either as radical nineteenth—century “proto—feminists” or as sour religious extremists. In order to move beyond these easy generalizations, this dissertation examines the WCTU’s evolution from 1873-1933. It analyzes the defining features that animated the organization throughout its career: issues of family relations, parental authority, and sexuality. Placing race at the center of analysis, the dissertation evaluates the religious commitments, political coalitions and social conditions that fostered interracial cooperation, or closed of f those possibilities. The study combines a detailed collective biography of black, white, immigrant, and American Indian members with a political chronology of WCTU programs. These initiatives included campaigns focused on woman suffrage, social purity and child-rearing, protection for women against rape and domestic violence, the suppression of prostitution, the prevention of racial violence, and the regulation of women’s participation in industry. Racial ideology and sectional allegiances, as well as religious beliefs, the study argues, shaped women activists’ perspectives on gender, sexuality, and family. The project explores the ways that the same family idom could animate different political and religious coalitions. Ultimately, it offers insight into the generational and gender concerns that have shaped Americans’ religious affiliations and political practices.