This thesis examines U.S. popular culture from 1950-1969 and the witch myth via horror films, newspapers, and within the Bewitched series. This research makes it clear that there is a difference in representing the witch myth by race. This is shown by first establishing American media’s representation of the imagined Black women’s witchcraft named Voodoo. Black voodoo queens were not only maligned in the news and film but also these accusations were deadly. In contrast, in the 1960s with the development of the women’s liberation movement the witch archetype in the U.S. media shifted to previous witch tropes similar to the tropes illustrated in the Malleus Maleficarum. These witch figures were disparaged but, it was not as extreme as the insidious depiction of Black women. Lastly, one of the most famous witch-forward piece of media in this period, Bewitched, highlighted witch tropes as synonymous to women agency but, white-washed and sanitized Black women’s role in witchcraft.
