In Defense of Black Women_ Black Women Advocacy and the National

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

Over the past century, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

(NAACP)—founded in 1909—has served as the premier organization focused on ensuring that

the rights and protections of the United States Constitution extends to all citizens regardless of

race or color. In this dissertation, I argue that, from 1945 to 1995, the NAACP advocated for

black women in housing, defended black women in cases of police violence, and fought

employment discrimination on behalf of black women in the workforce. I will do this drawing on

my research in the NAACP archives at the Library of Congress, which document the

organization’s work from 1945 to 1995. In this introduction to my dissertation, I begin by

discussing the general history of the NAACP prior to the period from 1945 to 1995. Second, I

discuss the scholarly contribution of my dissertation research to understanding black civil rights

organizations and the role black women played in them. Third, I include a methodological

discussion of the parameters and significance of the research period from 1945 to 1995, which is

the focus of my dissertation. Fourth, I discuss intersectionality and its importance for

understanding how black women engaged the NAACP and shaped its local and regional agendas

from 1945 to 1995. Finally, I provide an outline of my dissertation chapters.

The NAACP was founded in February 1909 by a group of white abolitionists including

Mary White Ovington, Oswald Garrison, William Walling and Henry Moskowitz.

They

founded the organization as a response to a race riot that had occurred a year earlier, in August

1908, in Springfield, Illinois. The riot had been fueled by rape and murder accusations—

Charles Kellogg, NAACP: A History of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, 1890–

1920 (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1967); “1908 Springfield race riot led to the creation of the

NAACP,” Windy City Times, September 12, 2008, originally published by the (Springfield) State Journal-Register,

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/1908-Springfield-race-riot-led-to-the-creation-of-the-

NAACP/64038.html.

allegations that were later proven false—against two black men. In 1909, this group called a

public meeting of both white and black people to address the historic problem of lynching and

other forms of violence against black Americans. The group included prominent activists W. E.

B. Du Bois, Mary Church Terrell, Ida Wells-Barnett, and Archibald Grimke. At the outset, the

NAACP sought to ensure the rights guaranteed to black populations by the Thirteenth,

Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

The contemporary

mission statement of the NAACP, is to secure the political, educational, social, and economic

equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-

being of all persons.

Though the NAACP was founded at the start of the twentieth century, it was not until the

middle of the century that the organization had established branches across the United States.

After the establishment of the national branch in 1912 in New York, the NAACP grew from

three branches in 1913 to nearly nine hundred branches by the beginning of World War II.

It is

this second half of the twentieth century—from 1945 to 1995—that I am interested in. In this

dissertation, I examine the nationwide initiatives and branch activity of the NAACP between

1945 and 1995. Specifically, I examine the tactics, strategies, and planning through which the

organization responded to black women’s issues at the local and regional scale during this

timeframe. These tactics, strategies, and planning are revealed in the NAACP national archives,

which include detailed documentation of activities from all of its branches. According to archival

documents, an NAACP branch was required to report activities to the national headquarters and

get approval for legal and political engagement—especially around issues that could have an

Kellogg, NAACP.

Josue Estrada and James Gregory, “NAACP Branch Activities, 1912–1923, and Database of Branches, 1912–

1964,” NAACP Branch Activities, 1912–1923: Mapping American Social Movements, University of Washington,

University of Washington. depts.washington.edu/moves/NAACP_map-early.shtml.

impact on the public view of the NAACP as an entity. I analyze these reports to explore how

local branches engaged black women’s concerns in concept and practice, as well as how they

communicated these concerns to the organization’s national leadership.

The NAACP was established as a national organization with a fundamental principle in

mind: to address violence against black populations in the United States. This principle and

mission of the organization would have been shared by the various branches that made up the

organization. In this dissertation, I analyze the details from cases of various branches—contained

in the NAACP archival papers—to reflect on and explore the experiences of black women in the

United States as understood through their engagement with the NAACP. Because I am assuming

various branches of the NAACP operate under the same principle (of addressing and responding

to violence against black people), I must also highlight the variables that can influence how

branches operate distinctly and locally. These distinguishing variables are discussed in the

limitations area of the conclusion of this dissertation.

Statement of the Problem and Purpose of Study

In this dissertation, I examine how the NAACP addressed black women’s issues from

1945 to 1995. The cases black women brought to the NAACP reveal the racism and sexism—

and their intersections—that they confronted in their everyday lives.

Furthermore, black women were often part of the NAACP. In the decades following its

founding in 1909, black women became a greater part of the NAACP membership, due in part to

criticism of the organization’s white reformist foundation. In addition, because they often

experienced multiple systems of oppression, black women were part of the advocacy population

least likely to reproduce these systems in their leadership strategies.

Because black women

served in leadership and administrative roles in the NAACP, it is likely that their presence within

the ranks of the organization made it possible for black women to seek help more readily from

the organization. Perhaps black women’s involvement in the NAACP explains why some of their

cases were taken seriously and pursued by local branches in the second half of the twentieth

century.

While I am interested in the role of black women as agents of change, I am also interested

in their role as recipients of social advocacy efforts. The efforts of black women at the leadership

and administrative levels in the NAACP during the selected historical period, from 1945 to 1995,

emerges from historical narratives that tend to also focus on black women in positions as agents

of change, and less often as recipients or being directly impacted by social advocacy efforts.

Black women have been recognized by historians including Joy James, Leslie Brown, Lee

Sartain, Bernice Barnett, Bettye Collier-Thomas, Deborah Gray White, and Cynthia Harrison as

playing significant roles in advocacy throughout the twentieth century.

These authors explore

the significant progressive contributions black women made to society in the twentieth century

and how their efforts often go unrecognized due to racism and sexism. While there is recognition

of the invisibility of black women’s contributions as agents of change, or individuals whose

Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (New

York: Routledge, 2000); Larry Salomon, “Movement History: Black Women and the Montgomery Bus Boycott,”

Third Force, June 30, 1995, 36.

See Joy James, Transcending the Talented Tenth: Black Leaders and American Intellectuals (New York, NY:

Routledge, 1997); Leslie Brown, Upbuilding Black Durham: Gender, Class, and Black Community Development in

the Jim Crow South (Durham: University of Chapell Hill, 2008), Lee Sartain, Invisible Activists : Women of the

Louisiana NAACP and the Struggle for Civil Rights, 1915–1945 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,

2007); Bernice McNair Barnett, “Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders in the Civil Rights Movement: The

Triple Constraints of Gender, Race, and Class,” Gender & Society 7, no. 2 (1993): 162–82; Bettye Collier-Thomas

and V. P. Franklin, eds., Sisters in the Struggle: African American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power

Movement (New York: New York University Press, 2001); Deborah Gray White, Ar’n’t I a Woman?: Female Slaves

in the Plantation South (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1985); and Cynthia Harrison “Bridges and Barriers:

Sex, Class, and Race in Twentieth-Century U.S. Women’s Movements.” Journal of Women’s History 13, no. 4

(2002): 191–99.

labor or actions produce change, there appears to be limited recognition on how acts towards

social change impact the lives of black women as a service population. In other words, while

historical narratives often view black women as agents of change, in terms of them supporting

protests, movements, and organizational affairs, black women are less often viewed as the

constituents whom black civil rights organizations serve. My dissertation hopes to examine black

women in their specific role engaging with the NAACP as constituents of advocacy.

In addition, historical literature on the NAACP as an organization in particular is also

heavily focused on black women as laborers for various NAACP causes. Existing literature

points to black women forming the initial networks necessary for the success of the NAACP, and

also being responsible for significant policy shifts such as leading advocacy efforts like the Anti-

Lynching Campaign and the organizing before and after the landmark Brown v. Board of

Education. Furthermore, in their own work, black women point out how their contributions and

the influence they have in advocacy, are overlooked. Less concerned specifically with the

contributions of women in the ranks of the NAACP, this dissertation adds to the scholarly

conversation by centering the stories, experiences, and voices of the black women who sought

assistance from the NAACP in response to their experiences with police violence, housing

discrimination, and employment discrimination.

It is this role of black women as constituents of advocacy—and their dynamic

relationships with the NAACP—that I am interested in examining in my dissertation. Through

my archival research, I argue that black women were agents of change and, just as importantly,

I am using the term constituents of advocacy to underscore that black women who sought out the NAACP for

advocacy help were not passive beneficiaries in any sense. In fact, black women leaders in the ranks of the NAACP

remind us that black women were a driving force within the organization as well. In using constituents of advocacy,

I hope to underscore the co-equal relationship between the black women who sought out the NAACP for support

and the organization that depended on its membership at the local, state, and national levels.

constituents who were at the focus of NAACP advocacy efforts in the latter half of the twentieth

century. In other words, black women sought advocacy from the civil rights organization as a

way to address their concerns at home, in the workplace, and in their communities. Analyzing

the ways in which black women were the focus of NAACP advocacy in the twentieth century

helps us to understand the ways in which black women engaged the NAACP as a guarantor of

civil rights at the local, regional, and national levels. Black women engaged the organization in a

variety of ways that were complex, fraught, and deeply insightful. It is my hope that this research

will demonstrate that there are particular concerns of black women and they were courageous

enough to seek assistance. By drawing on archival research, I hope to lift the voices of black

women and underscore the fact that, even though they may have not always won their cases,

these documents show the effort they took to combat racism and sexism in their homes,

workplaces, and communities. They are no longer invisible. The NAACP played an important

role in providing assistance to these women and through their documentation of their work

leaves us with the particular experiences of middle-class and low-income black women.

I am further interested in black women as constituents of advocacy in that it requires a

conversation about how black women inhabited the intersections of race, class, and gender. This

research seeks to address the way that social advocacy issues are often defined one

dimensionally—specifically, by focusing solely on racism or sexism individually. I examine the

experiences of black women through describing the sexist and racist elements of social advocacy

issues that emerged from NAACP’s actions in the lives of black women. In contrast to a larger

theme of advocacy issues being considered one dimensionally and often not based on all of the

needs of a distinct population, I argue that black women constituted a distinct, heterogeneous

group of constituents who highlighted a need to think about race, gender, and class together and

simultaneously. Specifically, the social identities of black women can be better understood from

examining their experiences as informed by multiple systems of oppression and for the purpose

of these research, sexism and racism.

By examining the experiences of black women based on

intersecting systems of oppression, I can confront how social topics are often (incorrectly)

narrowly defined through a single system of oppression. For black Americans, this misperception

emerges predominantly as an analysis exclusively concerned with race and racism. Centering

black women as constituents of NAACP advocacy remind us of the ways that race is always

already connected to ideas of class, gender, sexuality, and ability. These points will be expanded

with greater detail in later chapters.

Parameters and Significance of the Research Period, 1945–1995

The frame of this research is the period from 1945 to 1995. This period is bookended by the

years just after World War II and leading up to the years just before the start of the twenty-first

century. Throughout this dissertation, I refer to the period from 1945 to 1995 interchangeably as

the “post-World War II era” or the “postwar period.” There are both ideological and practical

reasons for defining the research period from 1945 to 1995 as the central focus of my

dissertation.

The ideological rationale is embedded in factors characterizing the period such as

postwar social marginalization; the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s; the

emergence of scholarly literature on intersectionality by women like Kimberlé Crenshaw,

Patricia Hill Collins, and Audre Lorde; the Black Power Movement; the institutionalization of

Collins, Black Feminist Thought; Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins.”

In addition, the NAACP archives at the Library of Congress, my primary research location, has certain restrictions

on documents that are less than or equal to 30 years old. I will explore this restriction more in my methodology

section. This restriction, as I will elaborate on later in this dissertation, is the primary reason I limit my timeline to

1995.

Black Studies; and legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act,

and the housing provision to the Civil Rights Act in 1968. These developments, movements, and

policies were the result of the social climate. During the civil rights movement, black people in

the United States put pressure on the state to enact policies to promote black citizenship. During

the Black Power era, blacks focused on self-empowerment. On college and university campuses,

this self-empowerment manifested in a demand for courses on black people with black faculty.

Black feminists called for acknowledgement for black women’s particular needs of resistance to

multiple forms of oppression. It is in this context that black women filed their cases of

discrimination with the NAACP.

The practical reasons which I will explore with greater detail in the methodology chapter,

are imposed by the restrictions and limitations in the location of primary collection, the Library

of Congress. In short, the NAACP archives at the Library of Congress restrict access to

documents that are less than or equal to 30 years old.

What makes this period from 1945 to 1995 significant related to the ideological rationale

for this research, are the changes in population and advocacy needs. During this period after

World War II, U.S. cities experienced significant changes in the demographics of their

populations. Specifically, urban industrial cities experienced an influx in Black Americans from

southern rural areas.

The influx of the black populations in many cities resulted in environments

that necessarily produced effective reform movements like those in Chicago, New York and

Philadelphia.

It has been argued that city-dwelling Black Americans during the era had better

Wilson Record, “American Racial Ideologies and Organizations in Transition,” Phylon 26, no. 4 (1965): 315–29.

Record, “American Racial Ideologies and Organizations in Transition”; Justin Gammage, “Black Power and the

Power of Protest: Re-Examining Approaches for Radical Economic Development,” Review of Black Political

Economy 44, no. 1 (2017): 23–36.

access to education, political resources and understood the complexities of social justice.

addition, during the postwar period, American industries experienced increased automation

resulting in mass unemployment. On top of this mass unemployment, Black Americans

experienced employment discrimination in both the private and public sectors. This environment

caused employment inequality to become an urgent, shared concern for organizations including

the NAACP, CORE, SCLC and SNCC.

The confluence of issues and concerns facing black

Americans in the latter part of the twentieth century make this period a useful one to illustrate all

the ways in which the NAACP advocated on behalf of people who sought help with advocacy.

The growing role of the NAACP in black communities in the period from 1945 to 1995

also makes this period a meaningful timeframe to study. In the earlier part of this time period,

from 1942 to 1950, the NAACP was the only organization experienced in fighting against racial

injustice and race-based violence.

The public relevance of the NAACP during this era is related

to several important factors, one key development being the fact that the NAACP membership

grew eightfold. Furthermore, the organization became increasingly concerned with black

representation in popular culture, voter engagement, housing equality, involving itself as a key

voice in landmark cases including Brown v. Board of Education and Smith v. Allwright.

Determining that black image in popular culture was directly connected to political and social

mistreatment, the NAACP leadership paid strategic attention in this era to the way black women

and men were represented in popular culture.

The national NAACP leadership utilized

Record, “American Racial Ideologies and Organizations in Transition.”

Record, “American Racial Ideologies and Organizations in Transition”; Gammage, “Black Power and the Power

of Protest.”

Kevin M. Kruse and Stephen Tuck, eds. Fog of War: The Second World War and the Civil Rights Movement

(New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2012).

Smith v. Allwright was a Supreme Court decision on voting rights and desegregating primary voting access in

southern states. 321 U.S. 649 (1944). See Megan Ming Francis, Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern

American State (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014).

Kruse and Tuck, Fog of War.

publications and materials including the organization’s publication, the Crisis, to advocate the

necessity of positive black images in popular culture. In other words, “these activists saw popular

culture as a central battleground in the wartime fight for equality, believing that the black image

shaped the place of black men and women in the white mind, and by extension, American

society.”

The NAACP served as a dominant organization working to improve the social welfare of

Black Americans during this period.

In addition, much of this organization’s leadership and

organizing emerged, and continued to thrive under the guidance of black women. The NAACP

depended on the existing networks of black women to garner resources necessary for their initial

success. In addition, many of the volunteers, field secretaries and administrators during this era

were predominantly black women. The NAACP during this period introduced direct action to

their traditional advocacy approaches from influences of the Civil Rights and Black Power

Movements as well the institutionalization of Black Studies.

Organizations that popularized direct action advocacy work in this era included the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC, founded 1957), Congress Of Racial Equality

(CORE, founded 1942), and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, founded

1960). These organizations introduced a new ideology characterized by direct action, a term that

refers to strategies and acts for economic and political improvement that directly involved the

working class and grassroots efforts.

The NAACP found interest in this ideology because they

began to see it as an effective method towards achieving policy change and a key interest of the

organization. For example, CORE and SNCC during the post-World War II era popularized

Kruse and Tuck, Fog of War, 9.

Francis, Civil Rights; Gammage, “Black Power.”

Record, “American Racial Ideologies and Organizations in Transition”; Gammage, “Black Power and the Power

of Protest.”

direct action approaches that engaged communities at the grassroots level. The NAACP adopted

direct action ideologies in social advocacy popularized by these organizations.

In 1956, The

NAACP held a series of community seminars facilitating discussions about the best way to

address employment discrimination. The NAACP also worked with CORE in 1963, participating

in protests to bring attention to racial discrimination in employment.

For my specific research investigation, I am interested in how NAACP’s adoption of

direct action tactics and strategies from the influence of the Civil Rights and Black Power

Movement impacted the lives of Black women. This topic is significant because it provides an

investigation that expands on existing narratives of the relationship between social advocacy and

black women during the post-World War II era. As I will present in the historical context of this

paper, much of the existing literature capturing the historical work of the NAACP focuses on

black women as contributors, leaders or agents of change. This historical work does recognize

the limitation, and marginalization that occurred when the work of black women was

marginalized by societal racism and sexism; however, there is not a significant focus on how

social advocacy transformed the lives of black women not engaged in labor towards systemic

change. The points introduced here will be discussed in greater detail when I introduce the gap

where my research fits.

Theoretical Framework

The research in this dissertation is qualitative, and I employ the theoretical framework of

intersectionality. The use of intersectionality in this dissertation is defined in one of two

approaches of intersectionality defined by Sumi Cho, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Leslie McCall in

Gammage, “Black Power and the Power of Protest.”

the article, “Towards a Field of Intersectionality Studies, Theory, Applications and Practice”

(2013).

The approach used here, is defined in the following excerpt from their article:

The first approach applies an intersectional frame of analysis to a wide range of research

and teaching projects. Aggregated together in this category are undertakings that build on

or adapt intersectionality to a tend to a variety of context-specific inquiries, including, for

example, analyzing the multiple ways that race and gender interact with class in the labor

market; interrogating the ways that states constitute regulatory regimes of identity,

reproduction, and family formation; developing doctrinal alternatives to bend

antidiscrimination law to accommodate claims of compound discrimination; and

revealing processes by which grassroots organizations shape advocacy strategies into

concrete agendas that transcend traditional single axis horizons.

The cases I identified in the NAACP archives located at the Library of Congress in

Washington, D.C., and the group whose experiences I examined were black women service

recipients of the NAACP between the years of 1945 and 1995. I argue that intersectionality with

specific regard to racism and sexism can be read, observed, and analyzed in the social advocacy

efforts of the NAACP during the period from 1945 to 1995. I discuss intersectionality

throughout the dissertation but use it specifically to think about issues that emerged from the

NAACP archives. In this section, I introduce the theoretical framework of intersectionality and I

discuss how I use intersectionality in the literature review and in the analysis of findings in the

later chapters of this dissertation.

In the literature review portion of this dissertation, I establish a textual understanding of

the theoretical framework of intersectionality and how it is used to better understand the social

experiences of black women. In addition, the literature review section is used to present uses and

limitations of the theoretical framework of intersectionality in practical improvements to the

lives of black women. Presenting these uses and limitations is necessary because my research

Sumi Cho, Kimberlé Crenshaw, and Leslie McCall, “Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies: Theory,

Applications, and Praxis,” Signs 38, no. 4 (2013): 785–810.

Cho, Crenshaw, McCall, “Toward A Field of Intersectionality Studies.” p.785

contributes to an aspect of intersectionality in practice and how actual social advocacy issues can

be defined as intersectional. For the black women at the center of my dissertation, racism and

sexism were operating simultaneously in such a way that the experiences of these black women

were distinctly racialized, gendered, and classed.

In the first findings chapter, I discuss the issue of housing discrimination during the

period following World War II and argue that it was a racialized and gendered phenomenon.

Specifically, I describe the general reality of housing discrimination for black Americans, and I

then discuss how the gendered reality of black women during this time impacted how they

experienced their racial reality. In other words, their lived experiences were deeply

intersectional, and they could not be understood otherwise. I end this chapter with a presentation

of NAACP cases that articulate the organization’s impact and supports my argument that,

especially for black women who sought help from the NAACP in the post-World War II period,

housing discrimination was an intersectional issue.

The second findings chapter discusses the NAACP’s efforts to address police brutality

against black Americans after World War II, another phenomenon that impacted black women in

distinctly racialized and gendered ways. In this chapter, I define the general reality of police

violence for black Americans and situate it as a racial issue. Following this general discussion, I

present how the gendered reality and specifically sexism can change the racial reality for black

women, arguing police brutality should be framed as an intersectional issue. Finally, I present

NAACP cases and argue that details from these cases provide evidence for my argument of

police brutality as an intersectional social issue. As I argue for an intersectional analysis of police

violence, I also provide evidence of the NAACP impact in the lives of black women.

The third findings chapter discusses the topic of employment discrimination—also an

intersectional concern for black women—as addressed by the NAACP during the period

following World War II. Notably, employment discrimination constituted the most prevalent

issue with cases emerging throughout the entire period from 1945 to 1995. In this chapter, I

define the racial aspect of discrimination with regard to employment for the general black

American population following the end of World War II. I further define how the history of

gender discrimination for black women changes the racial reality, creating an intersectional

social experience. Following these discussions, I provide evidence from the NAACP archives

that supports my argument of the intersectional social experiences of black women. In analyzing

these archival documents, I also make the case for the NAACP impact on black women’s lives

when it came to the issue of employment discrimination.

Positionality: Personal and Ideological Lenses

Intersectionality and black feminism both consider the positionality of those conducting research

on black women. Before discussing the details of my research, it is important to acknowledge the

ways that my social reality and perception of knowledge may have impacted my research process

and address potential biases.

In order to do this, I will examine the personal fixed

characteristics that situate me as an insider, as well as unfixed philosophical assumptions and

theoretical characteristics that may position me as an outsider in relation to my research.

As a black woman, I am positioned partially within the demographic highlighted in my

research inquiry. My racial and gender identity subjected me to certain instances throughout my

Robin Throne, Brian Bourke, Linda Bowlin, and Vahick Yedgarian, Insider/Outsider, Betwixt and Between: Post-

Doc Perspectives of Researcher Positionality After Dissertation Research, poster session, 2nd Annual Conference

on Academic Research in Education, Las Vegas, NV, 2018; David Takacs, “Positionality, Epistemology, and Social

Justice in the Classroom.” Social Justice 29, no. 4 (2002): 168–81.

experience with the non-profit sector. For two years after I completed my first degree, I worked

for one of the largest philanthropic organizations in Wisconsin, building relationships with non-

profits throughout the city. My identity as a black woman in many of these spaces subjected me

to overtly racist and sexist interactions. Though black people make up 40 percent of Milwaukee,

the city consistently ranks as America’s worst place for black people. In addition, I was in spaces

and attended meetings where decisions about programming for the city were being made by

people who did not reflect the majority of the city. Many of these programming decisions

targeted racial equity alone, and were made at the discretion of the donors, who were

predominantly elite whites. In this way, whites made decisions that had an impact on black

women constituents of the organization; however, these white decision-makers were unwilling to

listen to the voices of black women, even as they made decisions that would directly impact

black women.

While my identity as a black woman allows knowledge about how racism and sexism

work in my personal life, the time period of my experience is different from the period of my

study. Because I have this insider perspective, I risk maintaining objectivity with regard to

analysis. Throughout my research process, it is critical that I maintain objectivity when analyzing

archival material. Certain expectations that I hold as an insider may lead me to assume an unfair

standard for how well the NAACP performed for this population. This assumption can lead to

unnecessary criticism, which is enhanced by my ideological positioning. As aforementioned, my

ideological positioning is outside of the time period and historical context of this research

inquiry. The unfair criticism aforementioned is enhanced because I am positioned outside of

what is expected, or possible during that period. To clarify, the historical time period or context,

has a different standard relative to the social progress made up to 1945. Potential assumptions

come from holding standards relative to social progress made up to 2018. The risk here is that I

produce a social narrative of NAACP work between 1945 and 1995, relative to the social

progress made up to 2018. In order to minimize potential bias, I have developed a methodology,

with specific procedures for content analysis, that will help minimize potential bias from

underlying assumptions.

Organization of Dissertation Chapters

In this section, I offer an outline of the organization of the dissertation, briefly describing the

content and goals of each chapter.

Chapter Two, “Historical Context,” offers a literature review and the historical context

within which my dissertation is situated. This contextualization is defined by explaining black

liberation and women’s suffrage in the early part of the twentieth century. There is also an

examination of scholarship focused on gender and marginalization in black communities. This

discussion is important as it highlights how black women’s issues were discussed rather than

only having a “race only” approach. This chapter concludes with the relevant literature on the

NAACP. In mapping out the scholarship, this chapter clarifies this dissertation’s contribution: its

focus on how black women’s cases of discrimination were pursued offers a different lens—one

focused on black women as constituents of advocacy who sought change through the NAACP’s

advocacy efforts.

Chapter Three, “Methodology,” introduces my methodological approach. This chapter

presents the theoretical framework of intersectionality and how I applied it throughout my

research process. This chapter also outlines my primary and secondary research questions, the

content analysis procedures for archival research as well as the rationale for selecting the

specified qualitative method. In this chapter, I also spend time discussing how this research

inquiry is critical for the discipline of African and African Diaspora Studies itself or Black

Studies, as well as black feminist scholarship. In addition, I present the location for primary data

collection, timeline and limitation imposed by the location.

The next three chapters—Chapters Four, Five, and Six—present the findings of my

archival research. In Chapter Four, “The Fight Against Housing Discrimination,” I examine the

history of housing discrimination in the United States against Black Americans. Then, I discuss

how the history of gender discrimination against black women can create a heightened sense of

discrimination in the area of housing. This context is important, as I will present NAACP cases

of defense in the area of housing discrimination for black women.

In Chapter Five, “The Fight Against Police Brutality,” I discuss the history of police

brutality in black communities in the United States in the late nineteenth and the twentieth

century leading up to the period of research. Then, similar to the first findings chapter, I discuss

how black women experience gendered discrimination in the area of police brutality. These

layered discussions are important as I present cases of NAACP defending black women against

police violence and argue impact in the area.

In Chapter Six, “The Fight Against Employment Discrimination,” I discuss the history of

labor and labor exploitation in the United States for Black Americans. Like the previous findings

chapters, I discuss how gender discrimination within the issue creates a distinct form of

discrimination for black women. Specifically, labor exploitation and systemic restriction to

domestic labor. Following these discussions, I present NAACP cases of defense between 1945-

1995, in the area of employment or labor exploitation.

In the final chapter, “Conclusion, Limitations, and Implications for Future Research,” I

discuss the platform the NAACP defined for its twenty-first century advocacy for black

Americans, and how the findings of my dissertation can inform this work. I also discuss the

relevance of the framework of intersectionality in their work, and I evaluate the current state of

their actions in the lives of not only black women but also black girls.

CHAPTER TWO

Historical Context

This dissertation intervenes in the existing scholarship on social movements, black

feminism, and the NAACP by examining how the civil rights organization specifically addressed

black women’s grievances of employment discrimination, housing discrimination, and police

violence in the second half of the twentieth century. In this chapter, I first provide a

historiography of black social movements in the United States and then examine the scholarship

on the role of black women in social movements in order to situate this dissertation’s specific

contribution to and intervention within these fields of scholarship. Collectively, this scholarship

offers the historical context for the particular time period with which my dissertation is

concerned. In considering the scholarship on black social movements as well as black women

and black feminism, I map out the broad contours of the scholarly conversations and subfields

within which this dissertation is situated. Lastly, I examine the existing scholarship on the

NAACP as a specific organization to make clear this dissertation’s contribution to the

historiography of the organization.

This dissertation sits at the nexus of this research on black social movements, black

feminisms, and the NAACP. Departing from existing (and important) narratives of women as

workers within the ranks of the NAACP, this dissertation adds to the scholarly conversations

outlined in this chapter by centering the stories, experiences, and voices of the black women who

sought assistance from the NAACP in response to their experiences with police violence,

housing discrimination, and employment discrimination. The NAACP played an important role

in providing assistance to these middle-class and low-income black women. In contrast to a

larger theme of advocacy issues being considered one dimensionally and often not based on all

of the needs of a distinct population, I argue that black women constituted a distinct,

heterogeneous group of constituents and therefore highlight a need to think about race, gender,

and class together and simultaneously. The remaining chapters of this dissertation take up this

argument and intersectional framework in more archival detail and historical texture.

Black Liberation and Women’s Liberation

This section examines the significant body of existing literature that engages the

relationship between black liberation movements and women’s liberation movements, especially

but not necessarily limited to the context of the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Many

historians discuss similarities between them, and others argue that there are various conflicts, and

inconsistencies between their ideologies. Because this dissertation considers the role of black

women as constituents of advocacy vis-à-vis the NAACP, understanding the intersections of race

and gender—and the historical relationships between black freedom struggles and women’s

rights movements—is crucial for situating the black women’s voices at the heart of my

dissertation. Specifically, this dissertation analyzes the tensions, contradictions, and

convergences between black liberation and women’s rights—race and gender, in other words—

as a particular black advocacy organization (the NAACP) worked to address the lives of black

women. Understanding black women’s role as constituents of NAACP advocacy through an

intersectional lens not only expands our understanding of black liberation and women’s rights to

be more multidimensional and nuanced, but it also responds to the claims made by some

historians that both black liberation and women’s rights movements have historically overlooked

the experiences of black women. By centering the lives and voices of black women engaged with

the NAACP, this dissertation is adding to the growing historical scholarship that seeks to

recuperate the voices of black women from the archives and bring them to light.

Historians have long debated the idea that black liberation movements have not

recognized the importance of the women’s rights movement to black women, and the idea that

women’s rights movements have not recognized the importance of the black liberation

movement.

The scholars included here help contextualize my research by presenting broader

relationships between black liberation and advocacy against gendered discrimination or women’s

rights. Though the scope of this scholarship extends beyond the specific population and time

period that I focus on in this dissertation, my work fits into a long genealogy and tradition of

historical research on social movements and black women’s important role in them.

During the Black Power era, which is typically periodized from the mid-1960s through

the late 1970s, black people sought empowerment through embracing blackness and black

culture. Blacks were dedicated to creating and sustaining their institutions. During the 1960s,

there were both black liberation movements and women’s rights movements. Some scholars

have argued that, during this period, activists in women’s movements appropriated and adapted

strategies from black movements to fit their own agendas. Specifically, Shirley Weber (1981)

and Jackie Huggins (1987) both argue that women’s movements built on and drew upon the

tactics and strategies of other social movements.

In her article, “Black Power in the 1960s: A Study of Its Impact on Women’s

Liberation,” Shirley Weber argues that “Blacks heightened women’s awareness of their

condition and greatly influenced the direction of the Women’s Movement,”

making clear that

Weber, “Black Power in the 1960s”; Huggins, “Black Women and Women’s Liberation”; Hartmann, 2002;

Stratton, 2005; Gordon, 1997; Valethia Watkins, “Votes for Women: Race, Gender and W.E.B. Du Bois’ Advocacy

for Women’s Suffrage,” Phylon 53, no. 2 (2017): 3–19; Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, African American Women in the

Struggle for the Vote, 1850–1920 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998); M. Rivka Polatnick, “Diversity in

Women’s Liberation Ideology: How a Black and a White Group of the 1960s Viewed Motherhood,” Signs 21, no. 3

(1996): 679–706; Valerie Amos and Pratibha Parmar, “Challenging Imperial Feminism,” Feminist Review 17

(1984): 3–19.

Weber, “Black Power in the 1960s”; Huggins, “Black Women and Women’s Liberation.”

Weber, “Black Power in the 1960s,” 497.

the women’s movement that coalesced in 1969 borrowed directly from the Black Power

movement that emerged a few years earlier. Specifically, Weber claims that white feminists

involved in the women’s suffrage movement in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries often

borrowed issues, strategies, and language (with slight adaptations) from black social movements,

sometimes even likening their gendered social position to the racialized position of enslaved

black people in the United States.

Weber cites several parallels and overlaps between

significant thrusts in black liberation movements (from Garveyism and the Harlem Renaissance

in the early part of the twentieth century and the Civil Rights and the Black Power movements in

the mid-twentieth century) and women’s rights movements as evidence that the latter borrowed

issues, strategies, and language from the former. In one instance that demonstrates how early

white women activists articulated their liberation in relation to abolition, Weber notes an 1863

resolution passed by the Women’s National Loyal League that states that equality can only be

truly found when black people and women are free in the United States.

In addition, Weber

argues that black liberation and black activists’ conceptualization of oppression became the very

basis on which white feminists in the 1960s understood their own structural oppression. In

essence, black liberation have historically shaped how white women defined their specific

oppression.

Other scholars have compared women’s liberation movements to black liberation

movements in order to highlight a specific neglect of the experiences of black women. In her

piece, “Black Women and Women’s Liberation,” Jackie Huggins (1987) makes a similar

argument to Weber in that she argues that the women’s liberation movement drew from black

Weber, “Black Power in the 1960s.”

movements. Huggins goes further, arguing that women’s movements existed beyond the

influence of black liberation movements in the United States. Specifically, Huggins points out

how the women’s movements found influence from aboriginal movements in Australia in the

early nineteenth century.

Huggins, while presenting the latter distinction, still ties it to the

relationship between women’s rights and black liberation in the United States. She connects the

women’s movement to other global liberation movements, including black liberation, but she

criticizes the limited focus of the women’s movement when it came to the experiences of black

women. In other words, while Black women have made up a significant part of the black

liberation movement and were simultaneously impacted by the women’s liberation movement,

their voices have been systematically omitted.

The omission of the experiences of black women

from women suffrage can be attributed to white feminists failure to recognize how sexism

uniquely influenced the already marginalized social position of black women.

In addition,

black women could not identify themselves in the demographic because of its white, middle-

class characteristics.

Huggins points to another aspect of the relationship between the black

liberation and women’s liberation movement: women’s liberation alone does not recognize the

racialized reality of black women.

Susan Hartmann (2002) adds to Huggins’ work by detailing the importance of focusing

on the experiences of black women in the relationship between black liberation and women’s’

suffrage. In her article, “Pauli Murray and the ‘Juncture of Women’s Liberation and Black

Liberation,’ ” Hartmann centers Pauli Murray’s direct involvement in both the women’s rights

Huggins, “Black Women and Women’s Liberation.”

and civil rights movements to argue that black women make unique political contributions

drawing on their intersectional experiences with racism and sexism. As noted by Hartmann in

the text, Pauli Murray experienced sex-based discrimination in the 1940s at Howard University,

as well as in subsequent employment.

Because of her experiences, she began advocacy for sex-

based discrimination to be added to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Hartmann’s study

of Murray’s activism underscores the importance of an intersectional framework to understand

how black women experience intersecting systems of oppression. It also their perspectives

present the full dynamic of oppression often overlooked.

Hartmann goes further to present how ignoring the unique experiences of black women

through gendered and racial marginalization, promotes an incorrect historical image of advocacy.

Specifically, how historians create a marginalizing lens by examining early feminism through

white middle class organizations that were often inaccessible to black women.

She argues that

the focus of feminist movements from the perspective of white feminist organizations paints an

incorrect picture. Hartmann points out that studies of feminism must include black women by

focusing on how their feminism existed outside of mainstream organizations; in their personal

lives, employment, black liberation organizations (e.g. NAACP), and white male dominated

liberal organizations. According to Hartmann, it is necessary that any study of the contributions

of black women to feminism or black feminism, look outside of the mainstream as defined by

racism and patriarchy. In presenting the life of Pauli Murray, Hartmann highlights that the

traditional women's liberation platforms of the women’s liberation movement omit important

contributions by omitting the experiences of black women.

Hartmann, “Pauli Murray.”

Historian Rivka Polatnick, visits this necessary subjectiveness presented by scholars like

Hartmann in her work, “Diversity in Women’s Liberation Ideology: How a black and a white

group in the 1960s viewed Motherhood.” In this piece, Polatnick presents the diversity within the

women’s liberation movement by comparing the ideologies of mainstream white feminist middle

class organizations and less recognized, working class groups of black women. Polatnick

examines how the white middle class organization, New York Radical Women, and two groups

of working-class black women from Mount Vernon and New Rochelle, define the importance of

motherhood related to their cultural contexts.

The Mount Vernon and New Rochelle groups

look at motherhood as a mechanism for shaping the type of community they want, and also as a

way of staying connected to the world around them.

The black women, when confronted with

criticism from black men for their support of Planned Parenthood under claims of racial

genocide, advocated for themselves arguing that birth control enabled them to maintain the

growth and quality of their own communities.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the middle-

class white women of NYRW viewed motherhood as a weak, repressive, limiting position

instituted by white patriarchy.

This author examines an important aspect of subjectivity related to liberation of black

women connected to women’s liberation. Specifically, Polatnick presents how motherhood can

be conceptualized as a mechanism of activism and dignity for black women. Classic white

feminism, as also presented by Hartmann, does not recognize this important aspect of black

women's liberation because of how it defines women's suffrage in the purview of the experiences

and desires of white women.

These scholars contribute to an understanding of how the

Polatnick, “Diversity in Women's Liberation Ideology.”

Hartmann, “Pauli Murray”; Polatnick, “Diversity in Women's Liberation Ideology.”

traditional women’s liberation purview does not acknowledge black women or their

contributions.

In her article, “Votes for Women: Race, Gender and W.E.B. Du Bois’s Advocacy for

Women’s Suffrage,” Valethia Watkins presents a perspective that also challenges existing

inconsistencies in the historical literature documenting the relationship between women's

suffrage and black liberation.

Watkins argues against a claim of black liberation movements

not recognizing the importance of women’s rights. She does so, by presenting the advocacy work

of WEB Dubois as it related to the women's suffrage movement. Dubois, wrote over twenty

essays and editorials on the importance of women's suffrage, and also dedicated several articles

in the NAACP magazine, the Crisis, to discussions of women's rights and specifically voting

rights during the early twentieth century.

Watkins also highlights how the work of Frederick

Douglass, another prominent figure of early black liberation, focused on the rights of women.

She uses the work of these two black men to emphasize how proponents of black liberation have

been supportive of women's rights, while simultaneously presenting how the relationship is not

reciprocal. Specifically, Watkins presents how white feminists did not recognize the humanity of

black people and black women in particular.

White women were highly offended that racism would be addressed before gender

discrimination. White women believed that, if the nation were only willing to address one

form of discrimination at a time, they should push for white women as a class of citizens

to be granted the vote before anyone else.

Watkins’ work is an example of the complexity of women’s suffrage movements. While there

were black leaders—that is, black men and women fighting for black liberation and women’s

Watkins, “Votes for Women.”

Watkins, “Votes for Women,” 6.

rights—white women activists rarely integrated a black rights agenda.

Natalie Thomlinson

(2012) proposes that historians are too quick to dismiss white feminists of the era as racist and

ignorant of the role white supremacy has in the lives of black women and women of color.

Instead, she argues that it is important to investigate why white feminists did not recognize race.

Thomlinson emphasizes this point by looking at the connections of white feminists to black

liberation and black nationalists in Britain in the late twentieth century.

Thomlinson presents

this point in an argument defending feminists in the United States, using evidence outside of the

specific historical context of the United States. Because of this, here I also present the work of

Christensen (1997) who provides evidence from the second wave feminism in the United States

denoting the 1960s and later.

Kimberly Christensen (1997) presents her theory behind why white feminists propagate

attitudes of racism and omit the experiences of black women as connected to their social

positioning.

Christensen’s theory about racism in white feminism ties together a defense of

white feminists with the necessary subjectivity associated with focusing on the lived experiences

of black women and people of color. Specifically, white women align with white supremacy in

that they always carry the position of the oppressor. She argues that it is impossible for them to

articulate or empathize with the experiences of black women and people of color. She makes this

point through making a parallel with how patriarchy operates in spaces attempting to address

gender inclusivity. Christensen states:

White women’s consciousness raising cannot form the basis for liberatory knowledge

about racism...only the experiences of those oppressed by racism—women and men of

color—can form the basis for liberatory knowledge of racism. White feminists need to be

Natalie Thomlinson, “The Colour of Feminism: White Feminists and Race in the Women's Liberation

Movement.” History 97, no. 327 (2012): 453–75; Kimberly Christensen, “ ‘With Whom Do You Believe Your Lot

is Cast? White Feminists and Racism,” Signs 22, no. 3 (1997): 617–648.

Thomlinson, “The Colour of Feminism.”

Christensen, “With Whom Do You Believe Your Lot is Cast.”

coming to terms with the personal, historical, and theoretical works by people of color.

An informed understanding of their diverse political, economic and social histories, and

of their efforts to end their oppression, is a necessary condition for respectful

interaction.

What Christensen presents in her analysis is the necessary subjectivity when considering the

lives of those oppressed by racism. According to how she lays out her argument white feminists

need to be intentional about addressing racism and understand that removed from all intent, their

very existence is built on an identity that propagates white supremacy. The embodiment of

racism within the white feminist movement present further contingencies in the relationship

between women’s suffrage and black liberation. Scholars in other works present examples of this

analysis laid out by Christensen as it emerged in white feminist organizations in the second half

of the twentieth century.

In the critical work of Carrie Sampson, “So It ‘Became White Activists Fighting for

Integration,’ ” Sampson presents the work of the Las Vegas League of Women Voters, who were

a group of white, middle class women focusing on community building efforts beginning in

1968.

This organization, whose membership body was 99 percent white women, had many

assumptions embedded in their work as they worked towards systemic change. This group

defined racism and their work towards racial equity in terms that appealed to the dominant white

narrative.

Their approach to activism work, was the idea that racism had an impact on non-white,

and white people in the same way.

The League created “white racism-black power” workshops

Christensen, “With Whom Do You Believe Your Lot is Cast,” 620.

Carrie R. Sampson, “So It ‘Became White Activists Fighting for Integration?’ Community Organizations,

Intersectional Identities, and Education Reform” Urban Review: Issues and Ideas in Public Education 49, no. 1

(2017): 72–95.

Sampson, “So It ‘Became White Activists Fighting for Integration?’ ”; Kolchin, “Whiteness Studies.”

Sampson, “So It ‘Became White Activists Fighting for Integration?’ ”

that encouraged groups to step back and understand how white racism harms black people and

how Black Power harms white people. The entire philosophy was problematic, and, in response,

the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) held animosity for

the group. In addition, the League was aware of their mostly white membership and knew it

could cause problems as they worked in black communities. To address this potential shortfall,

the organization employed black women, thinking that would alleviate some of the barriers they

would encounter. However, in public settings, white members asserted their leadership by

advocating for the black women, speaking on their intellect and background and using

themselves as a way of legitimizing the black women they hired.

Historians present how the women’s movement used black activism as the groundwork

for their own strategies. In addition, historians have highlighted how within the women's suffrage

movement the focus has been primarily on white women with the omission of or

misappropriation of black women. Lastly, black liberation has historically supported women’s

suffrage and women’s rights. While prominent Black figures including Frederick Douglass and

W. E. B. Du Bois have championed women’s social movements, white feminists (including

those of the women’s suffrage movement) have for the most part ignored the humanity of black

people and specifically black women. And as Valethia Watkins points out, part of the omission

of the humanity of black people generally, and black women specifically, by white feminists was

rooted in (1) a fear that black civil rights would come before the rights of white women and (2)

the fact that race did not figure prominently in white feminists’ worldviews.

My work is situated within these themes but also contributes a distinct understanding of

the relationship between black liberation and women's liberation. It contributes to the narrative

Sampson 2017; Collins, 1986; Crenshaw, 1989.

Watkins, “Votes for Women.”

of the way black liberation within the NAACP recognized the experiences of black women. My

work does this by focusing on the NAACP after World War II and what issue areas emerged

related to the NAACP direct services and the lives of black women during this era. This work

while recognizing the lives of black women through racial advocacy, does so without

disconnected the issues of women's suffrage particularly for black women. My research

contributes to dialogue emphasizing the connection between black liberation and women's

liberation and more specifically, the liberation of black women. This research corrects

misinformation on the unilateral relationship between black liberation and women's liberation,

by contributing how this black liberation organization may have focused on the goals of the

women's suffrage movement through what I will discuss, a recognition of black women’s

experiences. This research also minimizes dialogue regarding white supremacy within white

feminists organizations that focus on women's liberation, by centering an organization that for

much of its history has been critical of the role of whiteness. The aforementioned contributions

are made possible in the historical narrative that I produce from the primary research done in the

NAACP archives located at the Library of Congress, with specific regard to black women in

employment, advocacy, housing, economics and social welfare.

Gendered Marginalization within Black Communities

Insofar as my dissertation considers the interaction of race and gender in the lives of

black women who sought out the NAACP as constituents of advocacy, this section focuses on

gender marginalization within black communities in the latter half of the twentieth century to

contextualize the social position of black women in black communities. The breadth of the

literature discussed in this section engages ideas that black sexism or gendered marginalization

in black communities persisted despite broader goals of black liberation. Recognizing the

following claims presented by various scholars contrasts the goal of my research which will

present activism for black women in an organization largely focused black liberation, The

NAACP.

In the following pages I present examples from their overall arguments that contrasts

the goals of my research. This body of historical scholarship contributes to the context of my

research by focusing on how gender discrimination and gender advocacy takes place in black

communities. The scholars here, who my research is in conversation with, present black

liberation strategies that may benefit from a sustained engagement with the needs, lives, and

experiences of black women. This context offers the opportunity for my dissertation to intervene

and contribute by writing black women at the center of these conversations. My dissertation adds

to the conversation among these historians and their scholarship by arguing that there exist

intersectional patterns within racial advocacy groups—in this particular case, the NAACP—and

that these intersectional phenomena must be studied more carefully if we are to move toward

black freedom.

Though racial advocacy or racial liberation in the history of the United States is

commonly tied to black identity in the United States, in some cases, the same cannot be said for

gender advocacy for black women in particular. Furthermore, some historians have pointed out

that rather than producing gender advocacy for black women, many black networks reproduce

the oppressive system of sexism itself. The following scholars are examples of the latter. Austin

presents the perspectives and contributions of many black feminists scholars that have defined

the trend of what they call black sexism, and also contributes his own perspective. Austin argues

Smith and Seltzer, Race, Class, and Culture; Austin, “Theorizing Difference within Black Feminist Thought”;

Brown, Upbuilding Black Durham.

that black sexism has always been a part of black liberation in the United States.

Austin

examines the works of black feminist scholars, presenting how they have addressed or created

dialogues of black sexism within black communities:

Sexism is present among blacks, just as it is among other groups in the United States.

Sexism and misogyny were found in slave communities. The black church from the

nineteen century to the present has discriminated against black women….blacks tend to

be somewhat conservative or traditional in attitudes, disapproving of women in politics or

of married women with children working outside the home.

Austin also argues that these conservative or traditional views emerging from how black women

are viewed within black communities, are more related to class than an element of black culture.

Austin traces these arguments through the works of what he classifies as black feminist writers

including Patricia Hill Collins (1990), Kimberlé Crenshaw (1991), Toni Morrison (1970),

Angela Davis (1988), June Jordan (1981), Hazel Carby (1987) and Katie Cannon (1988),

presenting how they have addressed or created dialogues of black sexism within black

communities. Going beyond the analysis Austin provides of Patricia Hill Collins with other black

scholars, Collins provides significant insight on how Black male scholars respond to the

intellectual outputs of black women.

In addition to her presentation of the intersectional epistemology in her book, “Black

Feminist Thought,” Collins examines how black sexism emerges in black communities by way

of referencing how black male scholars responded to literature produced by black women, that

discuss the experiences of black women. She highlights both the textual responses by black male

scholars in addition to the press experiences of black feminist productions. In addition, Collins

Austin, “Theorizing Difference within Black Feminist Thought.”

Austin, “Theorizing Difference within Black Feminist Thought.” 53

examines how the trend within black advocacy of presuming that focus on black women detracts

overall black progress and liberation.

Robert Staples’s analysis of Ntozake Shange’s choropoem, [For Colored Girls Who Have

Considered Suicide] and Michele Wallace’s controversial volume [Black Macho and the

Myth of the Superwoman] illustrates the difficulty of challenging the masculinist bias in

black social and political thought. Alice Walker encountered similar hostile reactions to

her publication [The Color Purple].

The literary trend of discussing the unique gender marginalization within black communities can

be traced as far back as the enslavement of black people in the United States. The

marginalization associated with the period of enslavement emerges politically, but also in the

assumption that women experience social oppression in the same way as black men.

bell hooks

(1981) traces this marginalization to the enslavement of Africans in the United States in her text

Ain’t I a Woman:

Marginalization of Black women goes back to slavery. Even black men were able to

maintain some sense of masculinity. However, the claim that black male slaves were

emasculated created a dismissal of focus on black women's issues. Underlying

assumption that the experiences of black men were more important than black women.

In addition to discussing the marginalization of black women’s issues, hooks presents that black

men used patriarchy in a way to assert their humanity at the expense of black women. This

assertion of patriarchy occurred in the home and in activism efforts dominate with male

leadership. hooks notes that many black women who were activists were criticized and

minimized by their husbands from the fear that they were challenging the feminine and

submissive role in their homes. In addition, black men strived to claim patriarchy as a

mechanism to attain the same power they criticized in white men. As bell hooks writes, “Their

Collins, Black Feminist Thought.

Collins, Black Feminist Thought, 7.

hooks, Ain’t I a Woman.

hooks, Ain’t I a Woman 81

[black men’s] expressions of rage and anger are less a critique of the white male patriarchal

social order, and more a reaction against the fact that they have not been allowed full

participation in the power game.”

In the following excerpt, hooks is referring to the experiences

of Mary Church Terrell and Margaret Murray:

Terrell’s husband used his patriarchal status to sabotage her political work. His fear was

that her femininity would be tarnished by too many encounters with the world outside the

home. The marriage of Booker T. Washington and his third wife, Margaret Murray, was

fraught with similar conflict. Margaret wanted to assume a more active role in the black

political movement but was encouraged to confine herself to the domestic sphere.

Moving further into the twentieth century, during the years of Jim Crow, predominantly

black communities, had a deeply entrenched form of gender discrimination and invisibility. Jim

Crow specifically, refers to series of laws in the United States between 1880 and 1960 that

shaped racial history and restricted the parameters of black life in southern United States.

Leslie Brown recognizing gendered marginalization in southern black communities during this in

her analysis of an all-Black community emerging in Durham North Carolina.

Black women in

this community were subjected to the same exploitative conditions from before emancipation.

Black men in this community replicated the characteristics of white patriarchy, and restricted

black women to domestic and industrial labor.

Brown examines that though activism in

response to Jim Crow emerged to address the issues experienced by both black men and women,

men in Durham possessed most of the economic and political control. In addition, black women

made up the largest percentage of people living in poverty in Durham.

hooks, Ain’t I a Woman, 94.

hooks, Ain’t I a Woman, 90.

Kamalu, “Jim Crow.”

Brown, Upbuilding Black Durham.

During the era of Jim Crow, many black women utilized the social and economic

marginalization they experience as a way to redefine black womanhood. This is where the idea

of “New Negro Women” first emerged; a derivative of the New Negro.

This idea was used to

classify the work of women as they define their social identities outside of being a wife and a

mother. Brown argues that the black women in Durham followed the collective trend of black

women historically; personal autonomy and the advancement of the black race. However, similar

to the black women that attained roles with the NAACP, this activism was reserved for the

middle class and the economically elite of the community. Women that enjoyed an economic

benefit, were able to access the spaces to cultivate activism and this was often rooted in the

interests of the middle and upper class.

The majority of black women in the working and lower

class had less access to these spaces, and fewer opportunities to participate in focused feminist

activism. It is important to point out here how literature that focuses on the experiences of black

women, recognizes they are faced with intersectional issues. Specifically, black women

experiencing racism, gendered discrimination and in this example, class-based marginalization

simultaneously.

The scholarship presented here collectively argue for the different ways in which sexism

emerges within black communities, though this dissertation attempts to depart from the focus of

these perspectives on the gendered marginalization of black women. In this dissertation, I argue

that black women who advocated for themselves through the NAACP constituted a mode of

black activism distinct to their gendered and racialized social location as black women. This

particular focus complicates narratives that represent black activism and advocacy, or black

social movements, as movements that embody sexism and marginalize the unique experiences of

Brown, Upbuilding Black Durham.

black women. While gendered marginalization exists in these movements, black women and

their engagement with the NAACP as constituents of advocacy Part of this contrast is also

related to the next theme, the dominance of black women in leadership and agency positions

historically in the NAACP. This representation as an underlying variable, influences the patterns

of advocacy impacting the lives of black women minimizing the potential for marginalizing their

specific experiences.

NAACP Historical Literature

In this section, I specify the area of historical literature to which my research contributes.

Since my research focuses on the work of the NAACP during the period of the twentieth century

following World War II, this section discusses existing themes in the historical narratives around

the NAACP and its work during the twentieth century. In particular, this section examines the

contributions of black women to the NAACP during the twentieth century and analyzes the

scholarship that documents the role of black women in the NAACP. This section names and

elaborates on five main themes: (1) a focus on black women as agents of change; (2) arguments

that black women constituted the groundwork of the NAACP as leaders and administrators; (3)

the scholarship of historians and black feminist scholars writing about how the contributions of

black women to the NAACP are minimized; (4) historical literature on the NAACP’s focus on

unique service populations (often omitting black women); and (5) the ways in which the existing

scholarship overlooks the impact of advocacy on the lives of black women as service recipients.

Understanding these themes is important to tracking the various narratives that currently make

up the historiography of the NAACP and identifying opportunities build on the historiography by

writing into scholarship the lives of black women engaged with the NAACP as constituents of

advocacy. This is the work of my dissertation.

Dorothy Salem argues that the necessity of black women was critical to the work of the

NAACP as well as the larger context of black liberation movements dominated by black female

leaders. According to Salem (1995), activism embodies the social systems of oppression it seeks

to eradicate by way of leaders and organizers that propagate classism, sexism or racism. Black

women with social positioning at the intersection of racism, sexism and in many cases classism,

carry a unique perspective in their leadership that brings attention to these systems in all

advocacy efforts. Her contribution also presents an argument for studying how black women

being a part of organizations like the NAACP promoted polices that impacted their population by

increasing the likelihood of investigations on race, class, and gendered based discrimination.

Most of these social reformers carried some prevailing racial, class and gender attitudes

into their mission to help African Americans. The presence of black women in social

reform organizations during this period depicted the complex interrelationships of race,

class, and gender.

Salem also notes that black women made up a significant portion of the NAACP during

this era and also made up a significant portion of leaders in surrounding advocacy movements as

a way of showing the important contributions of women to social movements that emerged in the

postwar period. Black women became significant contributors to the NAACP because of the

criticism of the white reform origins of its initial founding in 1909. Further emphasizing the

point of black women being significant in promoting policies to address all systems of

oppression, being less likely to propagate them in advocacy organizations because of their

identities. Salem’s work helps contribute a perspective theorized on black women being a part of

Salem, 1995, p. 54

the leadership of an organization leading to policies that recognize the complexities of

oppression.

Black women played a significant role in the emergence of the NAACP, as well as its

social advocacy efforts during the second half of the twentieth century. In her article, “Women

and the Emergence of the NAACP,” Linda Moore highlights how women contributed to the

development of the NAACP and how their contributions are ignored in mainstream historical

texts. She presents her evidence through a model called “ interorganizational capital” (Moore,

2013 p 477). Specifically, the emergence of the NAACP depended on the networks created by

the alliances of black and white women social workers during the progressive era 1880-1990

(Moore, 2013).

Social Movements that involve civil rights often lack access to resources enjoyed by

mainstream organizations...Civil Rights leaders or organizers may seek allies to help

them bypass traditional routes to introduce their agenda to the larger society.

Moore (2013) studied how the nascent NAACP depended on the network created by black and

white women during the Progressive Era (1890s–1920s). She states that 20 black and white

women worked to raise money, educate civil rights leaders, and increase awareness to the issue

areas of the NAACP in those early years. Black women specifically developed block clubs

towards educating NAACP leaders about organizing, raised money, and provided administrative

staff to the NAACP (Moore, 2013). The black women integral to this process included Ida B.

Wells and Mary Church Terrell. The women-led organizations that played key roles in

establishing the NAACP included the Women’s Trade Union League, the Consumers’ League,

and the Equality League of Self-Supporting Women (Moore, 2013).

NAACP development was spearheaded by black women. This organization began to

develop best practices, and mechanisms for improving the lives of Black Americans especially

during the post-World War II era, the focus of this inquiry. Specifically, early administrators

within the organization focused on cultivating black political support through anti-lynching

campaigns and towards attaining influence in the judicial and executive tangents of government

(Francis, 2014). During the early years of the NAACP, its leaders refined its political tangent by

successfully getting Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding to support the anti-

lynching campaign and publicly scrutinize mob violence (Francis, 2014). Wilson particularly

became favorable to the demands of the NAACP in the latter portion of his term in office. The

NAACPs’ pursuit of political and social influence eventually gave way to its legal mechanism.

This advocacy shift led to a series of successful landmark cases (Francis, 2014; Kruse & Tuck,

2012).

Later in the twentieth century and in more recent years, the NAACP has included black

women and girls in activism and advocacy efforts, particularly around Brown v. Board of

Education (1954) as well as in desegregation of public schools before and after the Brown

decision. Historians have argued that the NAACP recognized the ways in which black women

leaders within the NAACP, including Nettle Hunt and Sarah Roberts, contributed to the

organization’s success in advocacy and organizing efforts. While literature of the NAACPs’

work in more recent years has highlighted the unique social realities of black women and girls,

there are still opportunities to add to the historiography in refreshing, new ways. For example,

recently the NAACP has produced literature that examines how black girls experience

discrimination from both sexism and racism in the classroom with unfair disciplinary practices

(NAACP Annual Report, 2014). Members of the NAACP have advocated on behalf of young

black girls by presenting the disproportionate way black girls are disciplined in school and

provide scholarships to increase the number of black girls interested in science, math,

technology, and engineering (STEM) fields. NAACP literature on the era that I am interested in,

in the latter half of the twentieth century, disproportionately presents the experiences of black

women as agents of the NAACP rather than recipients of service—and, as I have phrased it

earlier, as constituents of advocacy. In addition, this literature traditionally focuses on the

leadership of men and youth activism that is typically gendered through the lens of men. This is

another important contribution of my dissertation, which highlights how the NAACP improved

life for black women who sought out their advocacy support during that era.

Despite the important role of black women in the emergence, evolution, and leadership

development of the NAACP, the literature does not reflect this trend. Traditionally, the historical

narrative of black liberation or black activism, has either been diluted in mainstream texts—with

a focus on the dominant white patriarchal narrative (Alexander Floyd, 2012; Crenshaw, 1989)—

or limited to examining more often than not, the narratives of black men (Brown-Marshall, 2016;

Robinson, 1987; Wyatt, 2000; Sartin, 2007). Historians that produce work that presents the

contributions of the NAACP after World War II focus largely on male leadership as well as the

national and international work of the organization. The topics that frequently emerge in Post-

World War II literature include the NAACP relative to communism, colonialism, The Civil

Rights Movement, United States racism, voting rights, political reform and its most popular

tangent, The NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund (Bynum, 2013; Sullivan, 2009; Brown-

Marshall, 2016; Woodley, 2014; Anderson, 2015). This is not to say that all of literature is

produced from the latter list, because many historians have also focused on specific subgroups

impacted through NAACP work.

Attention has been given to the work of youth organizers within the NAACP as well as

CORE and SNCC. The following historian makes a point similar to the one made in this

dissertation, with focusing on the contributions of youth during the Post World War II freedom

movements including The Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Era. Thomas Bynum (2013)

highlights some of the gaps that exist in his book, NAACP Youth and the Fight for Black

Freedom. Bynum discusses that much of the historical literature on the NAACP focuses largely

on national campaigns and the work of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education fund. He

presents the importance of focusing on the role of youth within the NAACP and the

contributions of individual youth activists towards addressing their issues.

Bynum’s work is

important to highlight here because he presents both the limitations of literature on NAACP

work, and also highlights a population within the NAACP that goes unobserved.

It is also important to note, that literature that discusses legal strategies highlight race

with limited recognition of gender as part of those stratagies. Specifically, strategies broadly

focus on the racial experiences of black Americans. NAACP strategies were tied to constitutional

rights, campaigns and criticism of the U.S. Supreme Court ignoring the degrading racial reality

for Black Americans.

Alternatively, an examination of legal strategies of Anti-Lynching

Campaign, and Brown v. Board (LDF) do not outline gender and race explicitly but because

black women were among those lynched, and were 70% of the teachers in southern states; these

legal campaigns may have impacted their lives though gender isn’t outlined in the strategies.

There also exist trends in this historical literature that focus more on black women as

agents within the NAACP, marginalizing how they benefited from policies and advocacy efforts.

Historians focus on how black women led the emergence of the NAACP, promoted the Anti-

Lynching Bill, and worked as field organizers and administrators within the NAACP.

Bynum, NAACP Youth.

Hine,1979;Klarman,,2004; Jonas, 2005

Kluger, 1976; Zangrando, 1980

Starla, 2002; Mungarro, 2002; Trigg and Bernstein, 2016.

response to the dominant narrative that often marginalizes black women, many have captured

their experiences through their memoirs. Activists such as Ida Mae Holland (1986), Anne Moody

(1970), Septima Clark (1962) and Melba Beal (1994) in their memoirs discuss their significant

contributions to planning and executing the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Beale points out in her

memoir, how much of the work of the women in the months leading up to the Montgomery Bus

Boycott, which was a year-long strike against racial segregation on public transpiration, goes

unrecognized because they do not fit into the traditional, middle class feminine narrative

propagated by many social justice organizations during the period.

Jo Ann Gibson Robinson

(1987), highlights in her memoir, how black women laid the foundation for the Montgomery Bus

Boycott nine years before it began.

The organization “The Women’s Political Council”

established three branches throughout Alabama leading up to the start of the Montgomery bus

boycott. Many of the black women that started the organization, heard the poor treatment their

families would receive on a daily basis. The black women largely behind the Montgomery Bus

Boycott, and the marginalization they experienced that resulted in many of them producing

literature as a means of self-advocacy, speaks to the necessity of intersectionality as an approach

to historical analysis.

Black women in their work have given more detailed accounts of their experiences,

however what I have observed is limited attention to how this work improved their lives on a

daily basis. Similar to the way these woman discuss themselves as key agents in their memoirs,

black historians have also discussed their work as agents of change, rather than constituents, who

are often guided by their own leadership and activism.

Sartain, Invisible Activists.

Robinson, Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It.

For example, Joy James, a black women scholar, revisits W.E.B. Du Bois’s concept of

the Talented Tenth to argue, in part, how traditional historical narratives ignore the work and

contributions of black women. This invisibility results in a distortion of social advocacy, and the

complex functions of effective social progress.

That Ella Baker could have lived the life she did and remain so little known even among

the political knowledgeable is important in itself . It reminds us once more of how much

our collective past has been distorted and distorted in disempowering ways. Part of that

distortion stems from which actors are privileged in political memory. Reflecting that the

conservative or liberal bias that privileges men, whites and the affluent and contemporary

historians emphasize the role of African American Women.

Within my dissertation project, I am thinking about two questions. First, how do NAACP

historical narratives limitedly focus on broad issues? Second, how does literature produced by

black feminist scholars focus on themselves as workers and contributors rather than service

recipients? This work will contribute to moving historical narratives beyond seeing black women

simply as laborers towards change and improve how nonprofits work with marginalized

communities.

Racism, Sexism and The Theoretical Framework of Intersectionality

In the final section, I discuss literature themes on the theoretical framework of

intersectionality. This section helps contextualize my research because it presents existing

dialogues of the framework. Here, I present literary criticisms, topics that dominate discussion of

the framework, and theoretical and practical suggestions for its use. By presenting these; I also

present a gap for my own research to contribute to. Specifically, the gap being an analysis of

Joy James, Transcending the Talented Tenth: Black Leaders and American Intellectuals (New York, NY:

Routledge, 1997).

general social advocacy outcomes, as intersectional. This placement of this section is critical as it

helps lay the foundation for what will be discussed in the research approach and methodology

chapter that follows.

The emergence of Black Feminism and Black Feminist Theory strived, in part, to address

how the social experiences of black women are often characterized by compound systems of

oppression; specifically, racism, sexism, and in many cases classism Crenshaw.

Kimberlé

Crenshaw coined the concept of intersectionality as a succinct way to describe the reality of

black women within these intersecting systems. Kimberlé Crenshaw's work helps with

conceptualizing the framework of intersectionality as a legitimate empirical theory and more

importantly, its role in practice. Patricia Hill Collin in excerpts from her work, presents the

dilemma faced by proponents of intersectionality in defining the parameters of its use. Collins

highlights how the framework is employed in various functions of society.

Variations of intersectional practice can be found within and outside of the academy.

Teachers, social workers, parents, policy advocacy, university support staff, community

organizers, clergy, lawyers, graduate students, nurses and other practitioners find

themselves upholding and challenging social inequities.

Collins outlines the way intersectionality has a definitional fluidity; this is a particularly

important theme that emerges in discussions of intersectionality in practice. Much of the

literature discusses the framework's theoretical parameters emerge from its use in the lives of

black women. While my research inquiry for this dissertation employs intersectionality in social

advocacy efforts for black women in particular, it contributes a definitional qualifier for

understanding its use in practice, in the area of social advocacy in particular. It would contribute

to perspectives of intersectionality in practice, like those expressed by Kimberle Crenshaw.

Collins, “Learning from the Outsider Within”; Collins, Black Feminist Thought; Cho, Crenshaw, and McCall,

“Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies.”

Collins, Black Feminist Thought.

Much of the existing literature discussing the role of intersectionality emphasizes its use

in theorizing about the lived experiences of black women and women of color at the intersection

of sexism and racism and in many cases classism. In an article Crenshaw helped produce, one of

the approaches she recommends for its practice ties intersectionality to teaching and research

projects. This approach suggests that intersectionality, be used to develop policies to assist

antidiscrimination doctrines in cases of “compound oppression.”

Crenshaw also suggests the

framework be used by grassroots organizations in progressive advocacy campaigns that surpass

“single speared” issues.

Black feminism and the larger framework of intersectionality

introduces an alternative to the dominate narrative that disregards the very unique experiences of

black women and girls. Again, while the core argument in the article is intersectionality

developing into an empirical process, the emphasis is still on the lives of black women and girls

specifically.

Crenshaw's definition of intersectionality also emerges from her work, “Demarginalizing

the Intersection of Race and Sex” (1989) and “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity

Politics and Violence against Women of Color”(1991). In the former, Crenshaw analyzes the

book, “All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave” (Hull,

Smith and Bell-Scott,1982) to tie her discussion together, speaking of the unique and often

ignored experiences of black women. Specifically, she discusses how development efforts have a

limited, single sphere scope when it comes to the lives of black women (1989). She argues that

black women are excluded when development efforts only focus on racism. Crenshaw discusses

how this is a reality considering issues around rape, female led households, employment and

Cho, Crenshaw and McCall, “Toward a Field of Intersectionality Studies.”

social justice (1989). One of the examples that she presents highlights a case brought against

General Motors by four black women, for hiring practices that discriminated against black

women.

Plaintiffs have failed to cite any decisions which have stated that black women are a

special class to be protected from discrimination. The courts own research has failed to

disclose such a decision. The plaintiff is clearly entitled to a remedy if they have been

discriminated against. However, they should not be allowed to combine statutory

remedies to create a new super remedy which would give them relief beyond what the

drafters of the relevant statutes intended. Thus, this lawsuit must be examined to see if it

states a cause of action for race discrimination, sex discrimination, or alternatively either,

but not a combination of both.

The employment discrimination case that Crenshaw highlights is an excellent example of the real

implications of systemic oppression, and denial of the unique reality of black women as

impacted by both sexism and racism. In this case the court denied sex discrimination, and

suggest the women make another case specifically on the basis of race discrimination, not both

(Crenshaw, 1989). In the second article, Crenshaw expands the definition of intersectionality, by

emphasizing research and advocacy move beyond restrictive identity politics. Specifically, she

expands the definition of intersectionality to include women of color and examines how their

identities are inextricably linked to their economic, social and political realities (1991).

Crenshaw highlights issues including rape, domestic violence, racist politics, social services and

education.

Many scholars have taken Crenshaw’s original definition of intersectionality as a theory

and disjointed it from its black feminist origins. Additionally, there are scholars that come to the

defense of this framework, and argue it is appropriate only for the study in the lives of black

women, by black women. This concept has been carefully presented and examined by other

scholars like Patricia Hill Collins (2000), whose articulation of Black feminism focuses on the

specific ways black women experience domination. Collins also discusses self-empowerment

and liberation in her book, Black Feminist Thought (2000). Collins carefully examines how the

social identities of black women historically have existed within both a sexist and racist system

of discrimination and marginalization. Collins highlights the use of stereotypical images used to

suppress black women for social and economic purposes. Furthermore, other scholars—

including Crenshaw (2013), Cho and McCall (2013), Anner (1996) and Wilson (2013)—have

argued for the importance of this framework towards thoroughly addressing disenfranchisement

from racism and classism.

Nikol Alexander-Floyd helps further develop the framework, but also argues that it has

been co-opted into other disciplines in academia. She expands on the framework by discussing

the role of narrative analysis as a foundation for intersectionality and as a Black Feminist frame

of reference. This form of analysis holds the experiences of black women primary, and also

references them as the only credible source to study these experiences.

Alexander-Floyd argues

how the theory has been adopted and removes black women from its purview.

According to

Alexander-Floyd, this process occurs when Crenshaw's original concept of intersectionality is

expanded into the multi-faceted complexity of identity politics.

Scholars dismiss it as a

framework inextricably linked to the experiences of black women and women of color. Hancock

(2016) makes a similar argument claiming that intersectionality has transcended beyond its’ use

as a method for explicitly examining the experiences of black women.

Since the emergence of black feminism over three decades ago, there has been a

commodification of the framework of intersectionality, as scholars continue to define its use. In

Nikol Alexander-Floyd, “(Inter)Disciplinary Trouble: Intersectionality, Narrative Analysis, and the Making of a

New Political Science,” Politics & Gender 9, no. 4 (2013): 470–74.

Alexander-Floyd, “(Inter)Disciplinary Trouble.”

Nikol Alexander-Floyd, “Disappearing Acts: Reclaiming Intersectionality in the Social Sciences in a Post-Black

Feminist Era,” Feminist Formations 24, no. 1 (2012): 1–25.

Ange-Marie Hancock, Intersectionality: An Intellectual History (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2016).

her essay, “The Occult of True Black Womanhood,” Ann duCille (1994) examines this flock

towards the study of black feminism by white and black male scholars. This process discredits

the work of black feminists that pioneered the field as a criticism of white feminism in the

1970s.

Alexander-Floyd also draws connections from duCille to her own work, making the

argument that the same commodification occurs with the theoretical framework of

intersectionality, a mechanism of black feminism.

She discusses that the residual impact of

confronting white femininity, coupled with contemporary ideas around universal equality, led

many scholars into commodifying the framework of intersectionality (Alexander-Floyd

2012;2013 ). Evidence of this commodification can be found in the work of scholars like

Susanne Hochreiter (2011). Her article “Race, Class, Gender? Intersectionality Troubles”

discusses the foundation of intersectionality being rooted in the work of black feminists. In the

article, she argues that the framework has been adopted as a general system of identity politics.

The way that intersectionality has been taken up to recognize identities within European, and

LGBT studies, she argues, adopts the racial hierarchies that black feminists worked to challenge

in the first place.

Leslie McCall (2005), another scholar who is critiqued for her use of the

framework, appeals to a wider range of social science scholars by enabling their use of

intersectionality. Specifically, McCall places emphasis on the complexity of intersectionality in

order to focus more on human identity being broader than gender and race. McCall uses

intersectionality to delegitimize categorical approach to research as basic analysis of social

constructions.

Ann duCille, “The Occult of True Black Womanhood: Critical Demeanor and Black Feminist Studies,” Signs 19,

no. 3 (1994): 591–629.

Alexander-Floyd, “Disappearing Acts.”

Susanne Hochreiter, “Race, Class, Gender? Intersectionality Troubles,” Journal of Research in Gender Studies 1,

no. 2 (2011): 49–56.

Leslie McCall, “The Complexity of Intersectionality,” Signs 30, no. 3 (2005): 1771–800; Hochreiter, “Race,

Class, Gender.”

Many scholars have also criticized the framework of intersectionality in practice. It is

important to note that many of these criticisms emerge as the framework moves away from being

used to analyze the lives and experiences of black women. Scholars Richard Delgado (2011),

Jane Ward and Rachel Luft (2009), present specific barriers to the incorporation of the

framework of intersectionality in practice.

Richard Delgado (2011) presents the argument that intersectionality, in practice, is

underdeveloped and leaves out certain identities such as those identifying within LGBT or those

battling institutional barriers as immigrants or refugees.

He also highlights how

intersectionality aligns with essentialism in a way that undercuts broader, more general social

justice movements. Delgado claims that, “focusing on subgroup identities weakens movements

such as those focusing on workers’ rights.”

In contrast, Luft and Ward argue that these larger

social justice movements are incapable of properly acknowledging the various intersectional

identities that exist among marginalized groups.

In addition, Luft and Ward (2009) make

several claims against the practicality of the framework: first, practitioners may confuse

intersectionality as the purview of gender studies and feminism; second, it leads to confusion of

the difference between diversity and intersectionality; third, intersectionality can be

misinterpreted as a form of multiple jeopardy; and fourth, organizers may be unable to

acknowledge that studying intersections of oppression also means dealing with appropriate

analysis of intersecting systems of power and privilege.

Further arguments against the

framework of intersectionality highlight it as a system based on racial politics that may not be

Delgado, “Rodrigo’s Reconsideration.”

Rachel Luft and Jane Ward, “Toward an Intersectionality Just Out of Reach: Confronting Challenges to

Intersectional Practice.” Advances in Gender Research 13 (2009): 9–37.

Luft and Ward, “Toward an Intersectionality Just Out of Reach.”

relevant for contemporary social justice movements moving forward. In various cases, the

framework is argued as presenting a barrier when it comes to building alliances across all

marginalized groups. By focusing explicitly on the experience of black women, it is argued that

other marginalized groups will become unwelcomed as they attempt to organize and build with

this community. For example, the case study produced by Suyemoto and Fox Tree (an Asian

American woman and a Native American woman) examines barriers to teaching black educators

at an organization focused on antiracism and cultural sensitivity. The barriers encountered were

related to different experiences across communities of color and different ways these

communities relate to the white power structure.

They also highlight what psychologists claim

is a common barrier for activists and organizers across communities, which is discussing

diversity within non-white communities and potentially sacrificing solidarity.

It is critical to note that all of the criticisms that emerge in debates about the use of the

theoretical framework of intersectionality, are tied to its use with populations it was not created

to serve. Crenshaw coined this concept specifically to offer a more effective way to examine the

lives of black women, impacted by both sexism and racism. Examining another population using

this theory, defeats the very purpose of its establishment.

In this dissertation, I study black women who appear in the archival records of the

NAACP during the period 1945 to 1995. As this literature review shows, analyzing the

experiences of black women necessitates a Black Feminist framework. Specifically, the

theoretical framework of intersectionality—an apparatus of Black Feminism—prioritizes

narrative analysis which is a system of analysis that disrupts traditional systems that can be

Karen L. Suyemoto and Claudia A. Fox Tree, “Building Bridges Across Differences to Meet Social Action Goals:

Being and Creating Allies among People of Color,” American Journal of Community Psychology 37, nos. 3–4

(2006): 333–40.

Suyemoto and Fox Tree, “Building Bridges Across Differences.”

rooted in racism and sexism, by localizing knowledge in mostly subjective experiences.

The

theoretical framework of intersectionality helps us understand the issues of the black women in

the following chapters as intersectional, in the sense that these black women were confronting

multiple interlocking systems of oppression in their day-to-day lives. Though this theoretical

framework did not guide the collection of archival data, it can be used to analyze findings in

regard to the selected population and the subject areas that emerged. Furthermore, the focus of

this research is historical, with an emphasis on the lives of black women in the social advocacy

sector. The historical records of the NAACP were the most immediate source of primary data on

activities that potentially impact this population. Black women’s lives, which this dissertation is

especially interested in, are profoundly intersectional; therefore, the analyses that the following

chapters take up embrace intersectionality in order to reveal the entanglements of race, gender,

and class that made up their realities.

Alexander-Floyd, “(Inter)Disciplinary Trouble.”

CHAPTER THREE

Black Women at the Center: Toward A Black Studies and Black Feminist Methodology

This dissertation draws on qualitative research methods—specifically, archival

research—that center the experiences of black women who are constituents and recipients of

NAACP advocacy. Broadly speaking, qualitative research methods examine and analyze social

phenomena through the experiences and voices of individuals that are the focus of any given

study.

Furthermore, qualitative methods enables examination of social impact and can provide

human insight into areas not recognized in data collection associated with quantitative

methods.

The logic behind the specific archival approach in this dissertation lies in both the

discipline of African and African Diaspora Studies (Black Studies) itself as well as Black

Feminist scholarship. In this chapter, I examine the fields of Black Studies and Black Feminist

Studies to map out the contours of a methodological approach that grounds itself in the

positionality and subjectivity of black women. In doing so, this chapter (1) establishes an

understanding of the importance and impact of qualitative research, and (2) contextualizes my

own qualitative research in this dissertation. In addition, I will briefly define the history of the

movements that brought Black Studies and Black Feminist Studies into institutional being, as a

basic understanding of them contextualizes the importance of the research.

My dissertation directly engages the commitments, investments, and conversations that

have characterized Black Studies and Black Feminist Studies. The qualitative research in this

dissertation brings attention to the experiences of black women through examining their lives

Melinda M. Leko and Audrey A. Trainor, “The Value of Qualitative Methods in Social Validity Research.”

Remedial and Special Education 35, no. 5 (2014): 275–86; Michael Quinn Patton, Qualitative Research and

Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice, 3rd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2002).

Patton, Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods.

during the twentieth century. As stated earlier, qualitative research examines social phenomena

through the voices and experiences of individuals who are the focus of the study. In centering the

voices and lived experiences of the black women in the NAACP archives, I am aligning my

qualitative research with the commitments and investments of Black Studies and Black Feminist

Studies. Specifically, through this work, I focus on the experiences of black women; in doing so,

I advance an argument that takes up the call of Black Studies to broaden the complexity, nuance,

and texture of the narratives of African American communities. Importantly, I focus on the direct

experiences of African American women who came into contact with the NAACP between 1945

and 1995. This research examines their experiences with racism and sexism in specific issue

areas through their voices as recorded in the NAACP archives. In considering the ways in which

racism and sexism converged in the lives of the black women in this dissertation, I am engaging

in the long scholarly and profoundly political conversation around intersectionality and its

significance in Black Feminist Studies.

Black Studies

My dissertation draws from Black Studies’ commitment to challenging Eurocentric

narratives that misrepresent black communities and recuperating the complexity and visibility of

black life. Black Studies challenges dominant narratives that often reduce Blackness to a

pathology. Black Studies centers black life, black thought, and black communities in their full

complexities. African and African Diaspora Studies, a derivative of Black Studies, has emerged

as an interdisciplinary body of research characterized by history, ethnography, anthropology,

sociology, political science, and global studies, among other areas. The history of the

institutionalization of the discipline itself was defined by a need to extend the goals of Civil

Rights and the Black Power Movements. This need entailed converting goals into an

institutionalized ideology capable of humanizing black reality beyond what had been

marginalized and dehumanized through racism and Eurocentricity.

Early advocates fighting for

the initial institutionalization of Black Studies in colleges and universities saw it as a necessary

next step towards dignifying the complete reality of Africa and African descendants throughout

the world. Black Studies advocates critiqued dominant narratives rooted in white supremacy,

white patriarchy, and the normalization of European perspectives.

Foundational literature by a

breadth of thinkers, activists, and scholars—including W. E. B. Du Bois (1903), Walter Rodney

(1981), Eric Williams (1966), Patricia Hill Collins (2000) and Kimberlé Crenshaw (1991), Peter

Kolchin (2002), and Audre Lorde (1984)—have helped introduce foundational ideas and

concepts that articulate the experiences ignored by this dominant narrative.

100

For example, in his

book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Guyanese historian Walter Rodney (1981) provides

an alternative perspective to the Eurocentric perspective offered by many historians proceeding

him that have reported on Africa’s development and European colonialism.

Black Studies research typically addresses the goal of the institutionalization of Black

Studies in three ways: description, prescription, and correction. Black Studies research has been

descriptive, prescriptive, and corrective in its attempt to capture the complex realities that, in

many conventional and disciplinary research narratives, have been reduced to a monolith through

Martha Biondi, Black Revolution on Campus (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012); Manning Marable,

“Beyond Brown: The Revolution in Black Studies,” Black Scholar 35, no. 2 (2005): 11–21.

Biondi, Black Revolution on Campus.

100

W. E. B. Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk (Chicago, IL: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1903); Walter Rodney, How Europe

Underdeveloped Africa (Washington, DC: Howard University Press, 1981), originally published 1972; Eric

Williams, Capitalism and Slavery (New York: Capricorn Books, 1966); Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist

Thought: Knowledge, Power, and Consciousness (New York: Routledge, 2000); Kimberlé Crenshaw, “Mapping the

Margins”; Peter Kolchin, “Whiteness Studies: The New History of Race in America,” Journal of American History

89, no. 1 (2002): 154–73; and Audre Lorde Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (Trumansburg, NY: Crossing

Press, 1984).

racialized marginalization and dehumanization. Black Studies describes these complex realities

in ways that militate against one-dimensional representations of black communities, prescribes

alternative ways of understanding and interpreting social phenomena that are grounded in black

life, and corrects the misguided narratives that freely circulate in the popular social imaginations

of the country. A distinct Black Studies approach to research, then, entails that many scholars

look at black life through a lens not distorted by racism. In addition, it requires in part that

scholars study these communities by prioritizing black perspectives, ways of life, and

epistemologies. Robin D. G. Kelley exhibits this characteristic of black scholarship in his book,

Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (1997). In this piece,

Kelley prioritizes the perspective of black Americans living in urban areas as a way of

countering Eurocentric sociology models that pathologize black culture. Specifically, he presents

and then argues against the trend of these racist models towards blaming the behaviors of black

urban dwellers as the cause of the deplorable economic conditions in many American cities.

101

One of the arguments he presents to counter this tradition of sociology models, is centering the

perspective that Black Americans exist in conditions created by their systematic marginalization,

and the subsequent coping mechanisms and strategies to survive systemic constraints.

Kelley presents how institutions and public policy that led to the development of inner-

city ghettos, engaged a response from the population seeking to survive in the conditions they

had no part in creating.

102

For example, the economic shift gave rise to unemployment in a

system with already few employment opportunities for black residents. Unemployment coupled

101

Robin D. G. Kelley, Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional: Fighting the Culture Wars in Urban America (Boston: Beacon

Press, 1997).

102

Kelley, Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional.

with the influx of unskilled low wage jobs gave rise to an “underground economy” as well as a

cultural response that sought to cope with these economic conditions:

Economic restructuring leading to permanent unemployment; the shrinking of city

services; the rising number of abandoned buildings; the militarization of inner-city

streets; and the decline of parks, youth programs, and public schools altered the terrain of

play and creative expression of black youth.

103

Kelley presents that black youth response to these systems should not be pathologized but rather

viewed as a creative adjustment to conditions created by institutional changes. For example, he

references how black youth merge play with the need to produce income by becoming street

performers or making music through homemade instruments. What Kelley claims is that youth

are criticized through a pathologizing and often classist lens that professionalizes music and art

in the technological, post-industrial era.

104

Kelley’s argument emerges in Black Studies as a

criticism to traditional sociology models that would have instead pathologized the behavior of

black youth as inhibiting their own economic success. Kelley elaborates by explaining that

scholars that analyze black culture as a behavior inextricably tied to African or Slave Tradition

tend to pathologize black people through black culture.

105

What Kelley highlights is the trend that

black studies scholars confront: the othering of African descendants by disconnected them from

what is normalized as whiteness or Eurocentricity. Kelley, like many black scholars, examines

black communities without distancing them from an alleged racial norm.

Many black scholars have also produced research that confronts this trend by examining

black communities through ethnographic approaches that expands them beyond traditionally

reductive narratives that represent black communities as monolithic. These reductive narratives

that are characteristic of traditionally Eurocentric studies dehumanize black communities by

103

Kelley, Yo’ Mama’s Disfunktional, 46.

104

Ibid.

105

Ibid.

considering them noncomplex or multifaceted. An example of this is in the work produced by

Michael Dawson on the history of the political characteristics of Black Americans in the United

States.

106

In Blacks In and Out of the Left, Michael Dawson discusses the complexity of the

Black Radical Tradition—specifically, how the radical activism characterizing black history in

the U.S. is defined through a range of different political ideologies including Communism,

Liberalism, Black Radical Nationalism, and Socialism.

107

He emphasizes that while the political

left has proven successful in engaging black populations, it is still not completely inclusive of the

social issues concerning black activism. For example, he highlights how, in the 1930s,

communism found support among Black Americans as they led a campaign advocating for the

Scottsboro Boys, who were falsely convicted of the rape of two white women in Alabama.

108

While it engaged black communities, the Communist Party of the United States of America

(CPUSA) intentionally moved away from engaging black activists due to concerns that the

organization would be perceived as “too black.”

109

In addition, Dawson’s rationale for his

argument is rooted in challenging dominant dialogues around the political nature of black

communities for their exclusion of the multi-faceted concerns of black populations—specifically,

Black Nationalism, racial violence, racism within the working class [excluded in socialist

movements], and the minimization of the contribution of black female and male scholars.

110

Specifically, Dawson writes:

...this is a phenomenon most acutely observed in relation to black women activists in the

United States and elsewhere in the Diaspora. It is also a phenomenon observable in

relation to many black male radicals as well. Harry Haywood and Cyril Briggs are two

examples of figures who were important in their time but are now at best footnotes in the

106

Dawson, Blacks In and Out of the Left.

107

Ibid.

108

Ibid.

109

Ibid.

110

Ibid.

historiography of American radicalism...the history of the American left is grossly

distorted due to this erasure.

111

My dissertation challenges various erasures of black women in the narratives that circulate in

society and in the academy. To this end, I draw on Black Studies’ investments in offering

counter-representations that re-write Black life in all its complexity, nuance, and fullness.

Black Feminism

Black Feminist Studies, too, informs how I approach this study. Black Feminist research

has highlighted the unique experiences of black women who are traditionally marginalized in

narratives rooted in white supremacy and white feminism. Within the history of Black Feminism,

scholars including Kimberlé Crenshaw, Jackie Huggins (1987), Leslie McCall (2016), Richard

Delgado (2011), Ann duCille (1994), and Patricia Bell-Scott, Gloria Hull, and Barbara Smith

(1982) have argued that intersectionality—the understanding that race, gender, class, and other

modes of oppression often converge and work simultaneously in distinct ways—provides a way

to more deeply examine social processes beyond data associated with quantitative methods.

112

other words, an intersectional analysis captures something that the numbers cannot. Patricia Hill

Collins advocates for the experiences and contributions of black women in various fields.

Collins, Crenshaw and other scholars highlight how social marginalization requires an

intersectional form of analysis. As I presented in the literature review, the experiences of black

women are often marginalized in mainstream white, patriarchal, heteronormative historical

111

Ibid., 17.

112

Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins,”; Huggins, “Black Women and Women’s Liberation”; Leslie McCall (2016);

Richard Delgado, “Rodrigo's Reconsideration: Intersectionality and the Future of Critical Race Theory,” Iowa Law

Review 96, no. 4 (2011): 1247–88; Ann duCille, “The Occult of True Black Womanhood”; Akasha (Gloria T.) Hull,

Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith, eds., All the Women are White, all the Blacks are Men, but Some of Us are

Brave: Black Women's Studies (Old Westbury, NY: Feminist Press, 1982).

narratives.

113

Crenshaw makes this point in her work, emphasizing that black women are at the

intersection of racism and gender discrimination; their experiences are a combination of both

sexism and racism. The outcome of intersectional research in focusing on the voiced experiences

of a population, illuminating a more complete impact of social systems.

Scholars whose research emerges from the framework of intersectionality, often focus on

the localizing systems of racism and sexism in the lives of black women. This work also

highlights how the lives of black women have contributed historically to public policy, social

progress and the inclusivity of those marginalized according to their social identities. The life of

activist Pauli Murray is an excellent example of intersectional work fulfilling this purpose. In her

book, Rosenberg presents the life of Pauli Murray leading up to her work as a little-known

activist helping to build the foundation for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

114

Murray would

advocate for the discriminatory experiences of women, and particularly black women to be

recognized through this law. Murray experienced intersectional discrimination throughout her

adult life and even through her education at Howard University. It was this localized experience,

that Rosenburg is able to examine the role of the lives and experiences of black women in

contributing to social progress, and in this particular example the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Other examples of scholars that produce research from the framework of

intersectionality. Examine its relevance over a broad range of interdisciplinary topics such as

social movements, in American history, empirical analysis as well as gender and sexuality

studies.

115

Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham presents intersectionality research through looking at

how racism structures other systems of oppression. She does this as a way of understanding

113

Alexander-Floyd, 2012; Alexander-Floyd, 2013; Crenshaw, 1989; Collins, 2000.

114

Rosenberg, 2017.

115

Faulkner and Parker, 2012; Trigg and Bernstein, 2016; Hancock, 2007.

racism as a metalanguage, that forms distinct understandings of class, gender and sexuality.

116

Higginbotham specifically argues for gender as a necessary lens when studying American

history. Higginbotham argues that the simultaneous workings of race and gender created distinct

historical realities for black women. She looks at how race is a qualifier for sexuality throughout

American history as well. Racial attitudes towards blacks between the sixteenth and nineteenth

centuries argues that black women’s bodies epitomized century-long European perceptions of

Africans as primitive, animal-like and savage.”

117

Ange-Marie Hancock (2007) provides yet another empirical understanding of research

produced through intersectionality. Hancock argues that one of the challenges facing

intersectionality as a practical research framework is that it comes into contact with early

theories of social categories being static.

118

Hancock argues that, as a research paradigm,

intersectionality should be used to navigate intergroup realities. She also argues that the history

of strict social categorization in the United States (1) assumes that these categories do not

interact or change and (2) recognizes policies and policy solutions that only address gender, race,

or sex-based discrimination.

119

Together, the work of Hancock and Higginbotham help set the

parameters of my research and the motivation behind the theoretical framework of

intersectionality that I used in analyzing the NAACP advocacy cases in the following chapters.

Specifically, Higginbotham defines that applying the framework entails looking at how gendered

patterns emerge within the metalanguage of racism, effectively providing a framework for me to

argue that the social issues black women in the postwar period confronted were ostensibly

intersectional. Similarly, Hancock presents how using intersectionality as an empirical

116

Higginbotham, 1992.

117

Higginbotham, 1992.

118

Hancock, 2007.

119

Hancock, 2007.

framework entails recognizing how social systems of oppression interact with one another. The

black women who sought support from the NAACP in their confrontations with oppression were

not facing single-issue oppression (because they did not live single-issue lives, to borrow Audre

Lorde’s famous words); instead, they confronted particular issues that were produced through

overlapping, interlocking modes of oppression.

Research Location, Parameters of Study

The NAACP National archives are located at the Library of Congress and are organized

into nine parts. Parts I-VI are organized chronological covering the period from 1919 to 1978,

and the remaining three parts cover 1979-2003. For the purpose of this research, the bulk of my

data came from parts 2-8, which corresponds with the years 1945-1995. In addition, within these

parts file types are organized alphabetically. These file types include branch files, NAACP

affiliated organizations, and personnel files. These file types contained speeches, correspondence

and biographical sketches of specific individuals. Additional information was organized into

chronological order and included newspaper clippings, internal correspondence, speeches, annual

reports, annual conventions, court transcripts and case dockets. The following topics within the

file types are organized in first chronological order then alphabetical order if containing a named

individual or location: lynching, discrimination, police brutality, racial mob violence, armed

services, public accommodation, housing, education, employment, Civil Rights Act of 1964 and

discrimination.

The timeline for this research inquiry was the period following World War II. More

specifically, I focus on the latter half of the twentieth century, in the years from 1945 to 1995.

The NAACP gives open access to documents for the years 1945 through 1988 and requires

written permission for files more than thirty years from the current year. In order to get access to

files between the years 1988 through 1995, I was required to have a written request approved

from the national office of the NAACP currently located in New York. The NAACP approved

my written request to access these specific records on February 13, 2019, and the approval is

valid beyond the initial research period. Research continued for the years prior to 1988 during

the request approval process.

Archive Content Analysis Procedures and Research Questions

The primary goal of archival research is not to identify the relationship one variable has

to another, but to instead identify how multiple variables tell part of a larger story. The content

analysis procedures emerge from this goal. Content analysis is a form of qualitative data

analysis. It is defined by Charles Smith (2000) as:

A technique used to extract desired information from a body of material by

systematically and objectively identifying specified characteristics of the material. The

impartial and consistent application to all selected material of explicitly defined

procedures of analysis is intended to be objective in the sense of yielding unbiased results

that can be reproduced by other qualified investigators.

120

The history of the archiving process has been criticized for how it is capable of holding up

privileged voices, and reproducing racist and sexist power dynamics.

121

Specifically, because the

foundation of archival science holds the state at the center of analysis, the impact of social

problems propagated by the state such as classism, racism and sexism are ignored. Critiques of

archival science recommend that in order to address this issue in archival science, bottom up

analysis of archives is necessary. Merwe (2002) argues in favor of a “focus on the complex

120

Smith 2000 p. 314

121

Merwe 2017; McKemmish, 1993.

diversity of human experiences through recovering marginalized voices,”

122

which includes

focusing on working class, minority groups and women. The research contained in this

dissertation accomplishes this goal. By taking the focus from the state, I examine the voices of

black women from a variety of different social classes. I examine the impact of racism, sexism

and in some cases classism.

Scholarly material on archival methods in qualitative research is predominantly practical

rather than theoretical. Similar to Merwe’s assessment of archival research, historians including

Melvina Young (1993) Saidiya Hartman (2008) Ula Taylor (2008) and Marisa Fuentes (2010)

have all discussed the shortcomings and discriminatory patterns associated with how the voices

of black women are maintained in archives. These scholars help problematize the use of archival

data by explaining that the process has perpetually minimized the experiences of black women

because of the racist and sexist nature of the dominate narrative. Archives have not valued black

women, similar to the way society perpetually degrades their identities. Historical documents

attempting to narrate the lives of black women are often distorted, fragmented and

silenced.

123

Ula Taylor pinpoints this in the piece, Women in the Documents: Thoughts

uncovering the Personal, Political and Professional (2008):

individual and collective identities are difficult to summon when the material traces

holding the clues to those past souls are limited, heavily tainted, or virtually nonexistent.

And as legal scholar Cheryl Harris has pointed out, given the historical devaluation of

black women, and political intervention was ‘subject to be overlooked, misheard,

misinterpreted, misrepresented and misappropriated.’

124

With regard to practical aspects of archival research there is detailed information on

accessing archives, reading and contextualizing the types of documents in archives, time

122

Van Der 2019, 239.

123

Fuentes, 2010

124

Taylor, Ula 2008 p. 188

commitment of analogue versus digital archives, determining the best source for primary data,

and understanding and utilizing finding aids.

125

Many of these practical guides change depending

on the size and nature of the research inquiry. The research inquiry contained in this dissertation

required a collection of archival data determined by the research questions outlined in the

following pages. In addition, in the following pages there is a discussion of empirical strategies

emerged during the initial process of primary archive collection.

The practical steps for analyzing the primary research contained in this dissertation

occurred in two waves. The first is outlined by general knowledge that was acquired about the

nature of the NAACP work during the period from 1945 to 1995. Specifically, in historical

narratives in the literature review portion of this dissertation the NAACP focused its activities

around anti-discrimination public policy changes during the period following World War II. In

addition, the NAACP activities, as noted earlier, align with specific federal policy changes for

issues impacting the lived experiences of Black Americans such as education, housing, social

welfare, employment and racial violence. This knowledge led to a focus on the social, political,

and legal outputs of the NAACP for the selected era. In addition, the questions outlined in the

next pages streamlined the first wave of research by reducing focus on administrative, annual

convention, or internal affairs related material. The three research questions outlined here helped

lay the groundwork and also highlighted significant areas of relevant data for the broader

research topic.

1. Who were the black women that were served by the NAACP during the post-World

War II years (1945–1995)?

2. What were black women’s issues that the NAACP recognized in the postwar era?

125

Yakel, 2010; Masters, 2010; Harnick, 2010; L’Eplattenier, 2009.

3. Were the social realities of black women recognized in the NAACP published

literature? If so, how? If not, how were they overlooked?

In the sections that follow, I outline the goals, motivations, and processes behind each research

question that led me to gather the specific archival evidence that I used to make the arguments in

the following chapters.

Who were the black women that were served by the NAACP during the post-World War II

years (1945–1995)?

The goal of the first question was to identify named individuals, specifically black

women who came into contact with the NAACP during the period following World War II.

Using the theoretical framework of intersectionality to prioritize the lives of black women, I was

able to quantify which issue areas contained larger numbers of black women. Specifically,

because issue areas for the NAACP included housing, education, employment, social welfare,

racial violence and a variety of other issues tied to the United States Constitution, by identifying

named black women in specific issue areas I was able to determine which issue areas appear to

be the most recognized for black women. To clarify, housing advocacy, defense against police

brutality, and prevention of employment discrimination showed significant numbers of named

black women, with detailed cases. Moving further into the research process these were the issues

that I choose to focus on, because of the number of black women appearing for each.

The theoretical framework of intersectionality, which takes into consideration the

simultaneous impact of overlapping modes of oppression, highlights the experiences of black

women who are often marginalized in racist, patriarchal historical narratives. This work is an

accumulation of the experiences of black women who were the direct service recipients

(constituents of the advocacy) of NAACP activities in the period following World War II. The

theoretical framework applied to this research question not only prioritized the experiences of

black women but guided the analysis of the issues that emerged in the archives, as I will detail in

the following pages. It helped me articulate issues emerging for black women as intersectional

involving both racism and sexism.

The term list derived from this question included terms and concepts and campaigns

related to the positions that women commonly held especially between the years from 1945 to

1980. This was done in order to identify areas of the archive where named black women may

likely appear. For example, one of the largest campaigns that aligned with the desegregation of

public schools was the equalization of teachers pay in southern states. Furthermore, black

women made up more than 70 percent of the teachers in the southern states of Georgia,

Mississippi, South Carolina, and Louisiana.

126

The campaign for equal teacher pay thus became

an original part of the research criteria, though later it filtered out because the quantity of black

women was not enough as was assumed. The theoretical framework helped adjust my term list

for primary data by including, education, fair pay and teacher pay cases because they aligned

with the positions women were theoretically relegated to. Other terms, pinpointing the labor of

black women during the period- as denoted by intersectionality and literature on

intersectionality- included domestic labor, which proved to be a more useful search criteria. In

addition, the following list of topics includes the NAACP largest, most publicized campaigns in

the United States.

Figure 3.1. Refined Research Criteria.

Refined Research Criteria

126

Baker, Opportunity Denied.

Police Brutality

Education

Housing Equality

Employment ( Including cases of discrimination, fair pay, hospitals, schools and hospitality

services

Lynching and Anti-Lynching

Annual Reports, National, Regional and Local

What issues relevant to black women did the NAACP recognize in the period from 1945 to

1995?

This question should be viewed as a follow up to the first research question. Specifically,

the NAACP archives largely document activities where issues were related to national

campaigns and public policy goals or the daily lives of African Americans. With this question, I

sought to inquire where the NAACP placed the reality of black women in their activities. I

sought to examine if and how often the activities of the NAACP highlighted racism and if and

how often those activities highlighted sexism in the lives of black women.

This question has also emerged as an analysis of the larger campaigns the NAACP

pursued in the latter half of the twentieth century. Specifically, it provides a direct inquiry into

the most well-known aspects of the NAACP’s work after World War II, as a means of

identifying how this work impacted black women. This was an important question because it

help streamline research by increasing the likelihood of identifying relevant cases by focusing on

where NAACP activities were the most concentrated during the era. Furthermore, this question

inquiries about the specific issues within these larger campaigns that emerged relative to the lives

of black women. The search criteria for this question, became terms related to the campaigns

listed below.

Figure 3.2. List of NAACP Campaigns.

NAACP Campaigns

Housing Equality

Fair Employment

Desegregation of Public School and Brown Implementation

Desegregation of Public Space and Implementation

Implementation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Were the social realities of black women discussed in the NAACP-published literature? If

so, how? If not, how were they overlooked?

This question inquires how the unique issues of black women were discussed in public

discourse and literature produced by the NAACP. This question is relevant because it seeks to

interpret the social context in which the NAACP recognized black women in their activities. To

clarify, this question seeks to inquire about the historical context of NAACP work, and what was

relevant for social change for the era itself. This question emerged as a way to eliminate possible

research bias by investigating the organization against the ideological backdrop of the era itself.

One potential bias would be the NAACP’s discourse of the era, compared to contemporary

ideologies of social change. A secondary contribution of information gathered from this question

contributes information on the advocacy ideologies propagated by the NAACP and the overall

impact be it negative or positive, on black women.

Within this question is an examination and final analysis of NAACP public discourse.

Specifically, I analyzed material produced by the NAACP, media discussion of NAACP work,

correspondence among personnel, and interactions with the federal government. What this

question seeks to address is the social reality of black women and/or issues pertaining to black

women as recognized by the NAACP. The latter, is the criteria determined by the theoretical

framework of intersectionality. In addition, I am seeking to define the areas where the realities of

black women were overlooked in public discourse. The topics that emerge in the NAACP

archives relative to public discourse include the following:

Figure 3.3. Public Discourse Criteria.

Public Discourse Criteria

The Crisis Magazine

Newspaper Clippings

Case Transcripts

NAACP Guidelines for reporting complaints of Discrimination

These research questions and the subject lists derived from them were an initial strategy

used to approach the NAACP archives. Using the finding aid for the collection, I began by going

through parts in sequential order pulling boxes with information that related the closest to the

research question and subject list.

127

From these questions, the list of boxes in the following table

were identified and reviewed. The boxes in this table came from the NAACP nine-part collection

in addition to the Legal Defense and Education Fund records (LDF). LDF is considered a

separate organization since its formal split from the NAACP in 1954. The boxes discussed in this

collection from LDF include those from the years 1945-1954 before the split.

127

The finding aid used for this collection is a 1400-page PDF document containing the location and brief

description of each box in the nine part collection. The document is publicly accessible through the Library of

Congress Manuscript Division homepage. This chart contains boxes up to group four in which my research goes

more narrowed based on recognized patterns.

Figure 3.4. Research Question and Term Box Locations.

Research Question

Search Term or topics (s)

Boxes fitting the criteria

Who were the black women

served by the NAACP during

the Post World War II Years?

Women, Discrimination,

Domestic Labor, Police

Brutality, Reports, Housing

Equality, Employment,

Teacher fair pay, criminal law

LDF: 1, 29, 46,55, 159, 160 ,

245 Group 2: A40, A29,

A149,A191, A220, A291,

A306, A238,A408, A472,

A440, A155, B124, B194

Group 3: A238, A243, A244,

I21, I22, J4, J5 Group 4: J9,

J10 Group 5: Box 11, 187,

201,204, 232, 564, 565, 202,

201, 200,195

What were the issues that the

NAACP recognized for black

women in the Post World

War II era?

Newspaper clippings, Crisis

Magazine, affiliated women

organizations, labor,

conferences

LDF 105, LDF 145, Group 2:

A155,A113 A192, A204,

B194

Group 3: A211, A213, I12,

I13,I15,I16 Group 4: A18,

A19, A20, A23

Part 4: A1, A7, A11, A25,

A26, A27, A28 1966

Box A23 A53, A65, A66,

A77, A83

J10, J9 ,

Part 5: 202 203, 204, 205,

206, 207

220, 226, 952, 1715,

1759,1912, 1913,1914, 1915,

2718,

Part 6 : C37, C36, C35, C34

Part 6: C47, C49, C50, C52

C53, C54, C56, C58

Part 8 Box 318: Race and Sex

Based Discrimination

Were the social realities of

black women recognized in

Reports on public policy,

Housing Act, Economy,

LDF:108 158, Group 3:

A331, C174, C186, C230,

the NAACP published

Literature? If so, how? If not

how?

Universities, cases involving

domestic labor, and fair pay.

D36, H14, H30, H35, H49,

Crisis Magazine issues: 1969

Part 6 A52 1971,1974

A53, A54, B4, B5

Annual Reports Part 6 Box

A54

Annual Report 1968,

Annual Report 1969

Annual Report 1970

Part 6: C26, C27, C28, C29

Report of Activities 1974-

1978

C61, C64, C65, C68

Part 7 : 28, 29, 57, 75

Part 7 : 76, 79, 80, 81

Part 8 : 18, 19, 20, 89

Part 8 : 91, 92, 93, 96

97, 110, 104, 102

Housing Report 1977 Part 8

box 229

Box 359 NAACP Women's

Conference 1980

Content Analysis Procedures: Data Modeling and Supplementary Research

The second part of content analysis occurred when I reached Part 3 of the NAACP

National Archives through identifying material from the research questions previously outlined.

This is where I also identified larger trends of advocacy against police brutality, employment

discrimination and housing discrimination. These three topics emerged as trends from the

number of cases emerging for each, as well as the NAACP at the national level acknowledging

the significance of the issues in annual reports, and in strategic advocacy platforms which I will

detail in the next chapter. These trends also guided research through the remaining five parts of

the NAACP national archives using the search concepts: employment, unemployment,

discrimination, violence, housing, racial violence, police brutality, Fair Housing Act, emergency

assistance, Civil Rights Act. In addition, after identifying the trends I focused on examining case

dockets considering that employment and housing emerged largely as legal suits against private

groups as well as federal jurisdiction including local housing authorities and the U.S. Public

Housing Administration.

The research contained in this dissertation is historical. Accordingly, in order to

contextualize the cases that emerged in each of these large trends, I draw on historical

scholarship to inform my understanding and analysis of the broader historical moment. This

contextualization serves two purposes, first, it allows me to examine the NAACP’s advocacy in

the area according to how police brutality, housing discrimination, and employment

discrimination took shape in the United States during the twentieth century generally and at the

specific times of each of the cases. Identifying the foundation of these issues, helps establish an

understanding of the significant impact of them in the lives of Black Americans during the

second half of the 20th century. Second, this historical supplementary literature provides the

opportunity to interpret these issues as intersectional—thinking specifically about the

interlocking and overlapping dynamics of racism and sexism as they converged in the lives of

these black women—and examining the NAACP advocacy for black women. In the findings

chapters that follow, I draw on the framework of intersectionality to define the issues of housing

discrimination, advocacy against police brutality and employment discrimination to establish

them as racialized issues, followed by a discussion of what can be considered the racialized,

gendered experience of black women in relation to each of these issues. Specifically, I argue that

incorporating the analytic of gender can change our understandings how black women

experience the racialized nature of each issue. Next, I present specific NAACP cases for each

issue, arguing how they support my interpretation of intersectionality in each chapter. In doing

so, I make the case that the organization’s advocacy for black women in each area constituted an

acknowledgement of the racialized and gendered nature of black women’s lives.

The methodology for this dissertation is based on initial practical guidelines for

approaching archival research. This process shifted after patterns began to emerge in the archives

beyond what the finding aids for the collection suggested. The methodology was produced this

way in order to make the most efficient use of time. In addition, my methodology outlines the

goals of my research related to the literature of Black Feminism and African and African

Diaspora Studies. The practical aspects of applying the theoretical framework to data analysis

emerges in the finding chapters of this dissertation. In addition, the charts in this methodology

include boxes that were viewed, but the location of cases actually discussed in findings chapters

can be found in the appendix of this dissertation.

In the findings that follow in the next chapters, I discuss the impact of the NAACP in

their cases involving black women. This is done because of the irregularity of archives in

providing evidence of the outcome of various cases. For the purpose of consistency, I discuss

details of the cases engaged in the advocacy efforts of the NAACP and what they reflect about

the intersectional experiences of black women in housing, police brutality and employment

discrimination.

CHAPTER FOUR

The Fight Against Housing Discrimination

The NAACP boasts a history of being the most active private organization working

towards racial equity in housing. This campaign manifested itself in advocacy for policy change,

building coalitions with government housing programs, conferences, discrimination suits, and

funneling a significant portion of public and private housing complaints. In the second half of the

twentieth century, the NAACP played a significant role in addressing large-scale discrimination

cases involving multiple pursuants. During this period, the housing program of the NAACP

engaged in three primary areas of work: (1) using resources through federal and private streams

to encourage the development of low-income housing for underhoused groups; (2) developing

programs in consultation with branches and state conferences of the NAACP to utilize programs

and resources of the federal department of housing and urban development; and (3) establishing

housing complaint bureaus to receive and investigate complaints of housing.

In this chapter, I locate various NAACP cases involving black women in an intersectional

analysis to argue that housing and housing advocacy was a simultaneously gendered and

racialized phenomenon for black women. Furthermore, black women who engaged in housing

advocacy with the support of the NAACP benefited from and shaped the impact of the NAACP.

First, I discuss the more general racialized reality of housing discrimination during the postwar

period from 1945 to 1995. Second, I argue that black women’s gendered racial position in the

United States makes them vulnerable to distinct modes of gendered racial discrimination, likely

enhanced by the rise of black women-led households during the second half of the twentieth

century. I present how their gender experiences influence how they may have experienced the

racialized reality of housing. I conclude the chapter with a discussion of specific NAACP cases

involving black women engaged in housing struggles, in order to highlight the concrete ways in

which race, gender, and class were converging in black women’s lives in the second half of the

twentieth century.

The Racialized History of Housing Discrimination, 1945–1995

With the advent of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, NAACP advocacy reflected an increase

in housing discrimination suits for black Americans. These cases reflected the de facto

segregation held up by realtors, property owners, and mortgage companies. Many of these large-

scale cases emerged in the latter half of the period for this research after the 1968 Housing Act.

The NAACP focused on changing the dynamics of many neighborhoods that worked to

explicitly bar Black Americans from taking up residence. The racial reality that the NAACP

faced in regard to housing discrimination in the United States between the years of 1945 and

1995 were: redlining, evictions, access to low income housing and quality of housing or housing

safety.

In the United States in the period following World War II many advocates including the

NAACP that fought housing discrimination against black Americans came up against the racial

covenant or contractual agreements used to maintain white supremacy and bar black residents

from home ownership, especially in traditionally white neighborhoods.

128

In addition, these

covenants according to Dorceta Taylor were “used by developers and individual property owners

to control land use and occupancy.”

129

The racial covenant defined by this era, was a means of

restricting access to homeownership for black Americans to maintain race separation and

economic, social and political inferiority.

130

Also, as Taylor explains in Toxic Communities,

128

Ocen, 2012; Kycheva and Sander, 2014; Calmore, 1995.

129

Dorceta Taylor, Toxic Communities. 192

130

Ocen, 2012;Kycheva and Sander, 2014; Calmore, 1995; Dorceta Taylor, Toxic Communities, 193.

The federal government encouraged the use of racially restrictive covenants to create and

maintain racially homogeneous neighborhoods. The Federal housing administration

produced an Underwriting Manual with guidelines for preserving property values and

desirable community characteristics as it stated, ‘if a neighborhood is to retain stability, it

is necessary that properties shall continue to be occupied by the same social and racial

classes.’ Ergo, the Manual instructed appraisers to guard against the ‘infiltration’ of

‘inharmonious racial or nationality groups’ into neighborhoods.

131

The racial covenant was especially prevalent during the 1940s and preceding years because of

significant influx of black residents from the south to the north for increased access to economic

opportunities.

132

In 1948, the Supreme Court decision in Shelley v. Kraemer to restrict racial

covenants against the black homebuyer, arguably led to a shift in accessibility for black

residents.

133

While this case restricted racial covenants to bar black homebuyers from certain

communities, it did not eliminate social and institutional practices towards limiting access as

noted by Kycheva and Sander in, “The Misunderstood Consequences of Shelley v. Kraemer,”

when they state,

Bankers agreed not to extend credit to blacks seeking to buy into established white

neighborhoods. Real estate agents adopted professional ethnic codes prohibiting the

introduction of undesirables. White community leaders sought to define clear white and

black districts and organized improvement associations that discouraged new black

households from moving in and encouraging exiting black households to move out.

134

In addition to these practices that existed after the Shelley v. Kraemer decision, black

residents were barred entry to white communities through violence or threats of violence. Racial

violence or potential violence proved to be the most effective in detouring black residents from

home ownership in certain areas.

135

Black Americans were experiencing increased acts of

violence fueled by racist beliefs to control where they could reside and build families. This

131

Dorceta Taylor, Toxic Communities. 193

132

Ocen, “The New Racially Restrictive Covenant.”

133

Kycheva and Sander, “The Misunderstood Consequences of Shelley v. Kraemer.”

134

Kycheva and Sander, “The Misunderstood Consequences of Shelley v. Kraemer,” 215.

135

Kycheva and Sander, “The Misunderstood Consequences of Shelley v. Kraemer.”

violence was especially prevalent in northern cities during the second half of the twentieth

century as Black Americans migrated north. As they moved into predominantly white

neighborhoods, violence became a pattern as interracial friction, and white supremacist violence

persisted.

136

Racial segregation maintained by both institutional and socially violent practices

marginalized black residents from the political, economic and social benefits of home ownership.

These mechanisms also helped to maintain segregation in areas of employment and education,

especially with the quality of the latter being dependent on surrounding property values.

Furthermore, racial discrimination manifested in housing helped to cultivate the racialization of

space; enabling values, attitudes and behaviors to be attached to groups of people from the

environments they lived in which was a result of systemic marginalization.

137

The racialization

of space was also used to pathologize black populations living in certain areas and blame blacks

for the conditions in which they lived. In other words, poverty, unemployment, and crime were

viewed as a result of the behaviors and the cultural contexts of black residents living in

segregated areas and not the systemic problems (e.g. residential segregation, employment

discrimination, racial friction, racial violence).

The racialization of space can be tied to the history of housing discrimination in the

United States, and can also be linked to criminalization of predominantly black areas with things

such as over policing, police violence, mass incarceration, and social ailments such as low

employment and poorly funded education.

138

In addition, a trend emerged of placing the blame

136

Kycheva and Sander, “The Misunderstood Consequences of Shelley v. Kraemer.”

137

Ocen, “The New Racially Restrictive Covenant.”

138

See Calmore, “Racialized Space and the Culture of Segregation”; Ocen, “The New Racially Restrictive

Covenant”; Alexander, New Jim Crow; Taylor, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation; and Omi and Winant,

Racial Formation in the United States.

of such conditions on the residents that live in those areas. The latter is often labeled as

trivializing black poverty and pathologizing people, culture, and also viewed as a way to detract

the necessity of building equitable systemic solutions. Equitable solutions for impoverished

black communities maintained through racial segregation and racializing space, is intensified

through beliefs that racialize views of the black poor distinct from other poor populations.

139

John Calmore details this in the article, “Racialized Space and the Culture of Segregation.”

Society sees some as deserving and some not. The deserving poor would include the

elderly, the disabled ( if not due to drugs or alcohol) , two parent families with low wage

earners, divorced or widowed female low wage earners, and the single male low wage

earner. Whether retired, disabled or employed, we are sympathetic towards these groups

because through no fault of their own, there is not enough money to meet the common

necessities of food, clothing, health and shelter. In contrast the undeserving poor include

jobless males, welfare mothers in female led households, school dropouts, alcoholics,

drug addicts, violent felons and petty street criminals.

140

Black Americans’ relationship with housing can be characterized by racial discrimination or

marginalization rooted in implicit racial bias. The latter can be considered a reality for the

general black American population in the years following World War II. Because of the gender

identity of black women, racism and sexism should be considered for how they interact

historically in the lives of black women when considering this issue.

In the next section of this chapter, I explain how black women have been distanced

historically from conceptions of womanhood through the use of misrepresentations of their race

and gender. I will also discuss how these images may create a gendered racial discrimination in

housing that distinctly shapes black women’s experiences with housing as a gendered racial

phenomenon. Recognizing that black women’s experiences are gendered and racialized—and

therefore must be understood intersectionally—is important for analyzing how black women

139

Calmore, “Racialized Space and the Culture of Segregation,” 1247.

140

Calmore, “Racialized Space and the Culture of Segregation,” 1247.

lived and navigated their housing realities in the latter half of the twentieth century as well as for

understanding the specific impact of the NAACP’s housing advocacy efforts in the lives of black

women.

Controlling Images of Black Women and the Rise of Black Female Led Households

In order to understand the way patterns of racial discrimination can impact black women

because of gender identity, I must define how the relationship between racism and sexism

emerges for black women and can shape discrimination for them in the area of housing. In this

section I will discuss steryotypes of representation and how they can be related to discrimination

for black women through manipulated public perception. In addition, I will present evidence of

the growth of black female led households during the Post World War II period. Presenting

public perceptions of black women as produced through racialized and gendered constructions of

their identities and the growth of female led households during the period will provide a

foundation for analyzing NAACP cases of housing defense. Specifically, by proposing

discrimination existed against the growth of black female led households, by way of negative

stereotyping, I can argue that the NAACP had impact by defending groups of black women.

The reality of sexism and racism in the area of housing can both be characterized with

pathology, trivializing black poverty and discrimination. In addition, because many of the racial

biases causing disadvantage explained in previous pages come from historic and systemic

perceptions of black populations, it should be examined how biases rooted in sexism for black

women can affect public perceptions of them and create a bias that can impact their experiences

with housing. I find what distinguishes black women’s experiences from the experiences of

blacks in general is that there are specific controlling or stereotypical images aligned with policy

changes that impacted the particular experiences of black women. These policy changes also

align with the more general racial discrimination patterns experienced by black Americans. Two

of the images discussed here are: The Welfare Queen and the Matriarch.

141

Collins (2000) helps define the emergence of the controlling image of “Welfare Queen”

as a direct response to the social struggle, and social progress immediately following World War

II. African Americans during this period had struggled for and gained access to social support

programs, unemployment benefits, affirmative action, financial access to higher education and

were positioned with greater opportunities than the exploitative jobs offered to generations

before them.

142

Greater opportunities in other areas and the “shrinking industrial sector,” gave

rise to the discriminatory need to manipulate public perception of these groups while

simultaneously stabilizing economic and social status quo.

143

Collins argues, “The large numbers

of undereducated, unemployed African Americans ghettoized in U.S. inner cities, most of whom

were women and children, could not be forced to work. This surplus population no longer

represented cheap labor but instead from the perspective of the elites, signified a costly threat to

political and economic stability.”

144

As early as the 1930s, the image of the “Welfare Queen” was used as a mechanism, in

part, to repress access to social support programs for black women. As scholars like Dorothy

Roberts and Priscilla Ocen has written, there is a long history of these gendered racial

representations of black women as “paradigmatic welfare recipients” who are often at the center

of “negative stories about poverty.”

145

being mobilized to render black women vulnerable to state

violence (in the form of policing and surveillance) and to exclude them from accessing social

141

Collins, 2000; Christian, 1985; Wallace, 1979, Wallace- Sanders, 2008.

142

Collins, 2000.

143

Collins, Black Feminist Thought.

144

Collins, Black Feminist Thought, 79.

145

Priscilla A. Ocen, “The New Racially Restrictive Covenant: Race, Welfare, and the Policing of Black Women in

Subsidized Housing,” UCLA Law Review 59 (2012): 1540–1582.

welfare: “Black women have long been constructed as the paradigmatic welfare recipient.

Negative stories about poverty often feature black female faces.”

146

Black women are seen as

overrun with pathologies and are situated as the source of black discontent and

disenfranchisement.

147

It was similar in the way that it propagated the same cultural pathology

tied to the earlier presentation of the racial covenant and the racialization of space associated

with race based housing discrimination. This image targeted black women, distinct in how it

stereotypes black women specifically and claims, “today’s welfare child, raised in hopelessness

and dependency, becomes tomorrow welfare adult pauperized and helpless.”

148

This image was

used to discriminate against black women’s access to adequate housing and other social

assistance programs by negating their needs through the stereotype. In the passage below

Premilla Nadasen claims that the stereotypes were tied to social welfare controversy, she states:

Increasingly, the politics of welfare converged on the stereotypical image of a black,

unmarried, unworthy welfare mother. This image that interwove race, sex, and morality

more than any other fed the fires of welfare controversy. So, the public opposed not just

more families on welfare but also a greater number of black unmarried women receiving

assistance.

149

This image, existing at the intersection of race and gender, was also used as a way to turn

the fertility of black women, into a tool for their repression.

150

This image cultivated a public

monitoring of the number of children single black women had, under claims that they were

immoral, dependent, lazy, and exploitative of public generosity. In addition, this image, similar

to others, propagated attitudes encouraging the control of the fertility of black women to prevent

146

Collins, Black Feminist Thought; Christian, 1985; Wallace, 1979, Wallace- Sanders, 2008; Ocen, 2012 p.1558.

147

Ricketts, 2007.

148

Nadasen, “From Widow to Welfare Queen,” 58.

149

Nadasen, “From Widow to Welfare Queen,” 58.

150

Collins, Black Feminist Thought.

them from producing a population with inherited attributes. The idea was that these women aided

in producing a black population void of morality and self- sufficiency.

The second image used here, that of “the matriarch,” operated towards a similar end. The

controlling, stereotyped image of the “matriarch” was rooted in discriminating against black

women heads of households under claims that individual black women were the cause of

unemployment and poverty within the black family (Nadasen, 2007; Collins, 2000; Hooks,

1981). Propagated with the assistance of “The Moynihan Report,” Patrick Moynihan claimed, “at

the heart of the deteriorating fabric of negro society is the deterioration of the Negro family. It is

the fundamental source of the weakness of the Negro Family” He goes further stating, “the

Negro Community has been forced into a matriarchal structure which, because it is out of line

with the rest of American society, seriously retards the progress of the group as a whole.”

151

addition, Moynihan argued that the matriarchal family structure and the inability of black women

to perform patriarchy correctly led to the dysfunction and poverty within the black household

and by extension, black society.

152

This image, like the image of the welfare mother, propagated

social attitudes limiting black women’s access to social support programs and housing by

pathologizing the population and trivializing their actual needs.

153

Strengthening age old debates about why poor single mothers should not get government

assistance, the report cemented the issue of race to welfare and single parent families in a

way that made it difficult to talk about one without the other. The ensuing debate

centered on changing the “domineering” position of black women, bringing black men

back into the household and ending the “cycle of poverty.”

154

The image of the matriarch, similar to the image of the welfare mother, according to Bell

Hooks (1981 p.70), “was used to characterize black womanhood and have their roots in anti-

151

Moynihan, The Negro Family, 51.

152

Moynihan, The Negro Family; Nadasen, “From Widow to Welfare Queen”; Collins, Black Feminist Thought.

153

Moynihan, The Negro Family.

154

Nadasen, “From Widow to Welfare Queen,” 59.

woman mythology”. Yet they form the basis of most critical inquiry into the nature of the black

female experience”. She also states that society “ has difficulty appreciating black women

because of eagerness to impose an identity upon us based on a number of negative

stereotypes.”

155

Because these and others stereotype images can be considered a popular basis for

how black women are viewed in United States society, it can be argued that they limit

perceptions of black women as they interact with the public, accessing products and services

within their rights as citizens. bell hooks presents how these images are stereotypes but have a

significant impact despite being rooted in fallacy in the following passage.

156

They labeled black women matriarchs, a title that in no way accurately described the

social status of black women in America. No matriarchy has ever existed in the United

States. At the time sociologists proclaimed the existence of a matriarchal order in the

black family structure, black women represented one of the largest socially and

economically deprived groups in America whose status in no way resembled that of a

matriarch. The term matriarch implies the existence of a social order in which women

exercise social and political power, a state which in no way resembles the condition of

black women or all women in American society. The decisions that determine the way in

which black women must live their lives are made by others, usually white men. If

sociologists are to casually label black women matriarchs, they should also label female

children playing house and acting out the role of mother matriarchs. For in both

instances, no real effective power exists that allows the females in question control over

their destiny.

157

Scholars have presented both of these images, and others, as the way society creates an

othering of black women towards an end of negating their need of economic support and social

dignity. These images not only had a direct impact on black women’s daily lives, it manipulated

public perception of black women labeling them as “undeserving” and “devalued” as women and

mothers.

158

Collins presents this image as being especially damaging during the late 20th century

155

hooks, Ain’t I a Woman, 73.

156

hooks, Ain’t I a Woman, 72.

157

Ibid.

158

Ocen, “The New Racially Restrictive Covenant”; Collins, Black Feminist Thought; hooks, Ain’t I a Woman;

Dow, 2015.

with significant social and economic progress for black Americans. Similar to the earlier

discussion in this chapter, of housing practices that trivialized black poverty by attaching

racialized meaning to communities designed through segregation, Collins argues, “racialization

involves attaching racial meanings to a previously racially unclassified relationship, social

practice or group.

159

According to Collins, the black matriarchy was a controlling image that

made social insertion during a period of significant social change, while a significant percentage

of black families were, “maintained by single mothers.”

160

The image of the black matriarch

aided in propagating perceptions of black women and negative attitudes towards female, single

headed households. Collins outlines that, “African American women who failed to fulfil their

womanly duties contributed to social problems in black society.”

161

In empirical terms, black female-led households after World War II in the United States

appeared to grow expeditiously. Data exists on the increase of black female-led households, both

for black women with children and without children from the period just before World War II,

1945, into the 1980s. To provide adequate evidence for this point, I present three sets of data

analysis on the percentage of black female-led households from 1930 to 2000. The first data set

comes from the U.S. Department of Commerce produced in 1993 for years 1950 to 1991. The

percentage breakdowns of the black households headed by black women and those headed by

black husband and wife can be viewed in Figure 4.1 below.

159

Collins, Black Feminist Thought; Omi and Winant, Racial Formation.

160

Collins, Black Feminist Thought. 84

161

Collins, Black Feminist Thought. 85

Figure 4.1. Changes in Family Composition, Percent of Black Families

by Type of Householder, 1950–1991. Bar 11950, 2=1960, 3=1970, 4=

1980, 5= 1990, 6=1991. Source: U.S. Department of Commerce Economics

and Statistics Administration, Bureau of the Census, 1993.

Data from the U.S. Department of Commerce shows that between 1950 and 1991 there

was an average increase of 5.3% of households headed by unmarried black women per decade

from 1950, to the beginning of the 1990s; With the largest increase in black female led

households occurring between the 1970s and 1980s with a 16% increase.

A second analysis comes from sociologist Erol Ricketts (2007) who provides a

comparison between the growth of families headed by white women and families headed by

black women. Rickets analyzes Black female led households as a percent of Black American

households in rural and urban areas from 1930 until 1980. According to his analysis, there was

an average increase of 5% of families headed by black women, as a fraction of the black

American population for each decade between 1930 and 1980.

162

A third example used to

support the theory of an increase in black female led households in the years following World

162

Table 2, in Erol Ricketts, “The origin of black female headed families,” 34.

War II comes from the article, “The Growth of Families headed by Women: 1950-1980” from

authors Roger Wojtkiewicz, Sara McLanahan, and Irwin Garfunkel (1990). Their data analysis,

similar to Ricketts, comes from a comparison of changes in female led households according to

race. What is different, is that they provide a clearer statistical breakdown of the numerical

changes. Specifically, the number of households headed by black women grew by an average of

325,000 for each decade from 1950 until the beginning of the 1980s.

The information presented in the previous paragraphs shows that black female led

households increased significantly between 1930 to the beginning of the 1990s. What is also

discussed is public stereotypes of black women that attempted to degrade their experiences as

mothers, and as recipients of social support. Third, it is important to reiterate that the NAACP

during the period following World War II focused on enforcing federal policies to address

housing related discrimination and marginalization, evident in their general focus on systemic

enforcement and specifically enforcement of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 that was enacted

during the same period. Considering the relationship between these three points, one could note

that the NAACP increasing its advocacy in housing during the period also defended black

women who may have been impacted by public stereotypes attempting to degrade their roles as

mothers, and recipients of social support. This can be noted considering how housing and

especially access to low income housing can relate to black women as head of households and

as recipients of social support especially considering the increase of black women head of

households during the same period. In the following pages, I will clarify how these three points

frame my data analysis and examine housing cases involving black women from the NAACP

archives.

NAACP Housing Advocacy Cases

In order to provide an analysis of NAACP cases of housing involving black women, it is

important to have a clear understanding of the relationship between the three points highlighted

in the previous passage. I clarify that relationship here. First, housing was an issue for the

NAACP during this period because of the extent of racial discrimination in housing against a

population the organization is historically associated with defending, Black Americans. The

NAACP is known for their work towards enforcing federal public policies at national, regional

and local levels. Because the Fair Housing Policy of the Civil Right Act was put into law in

1968, it can be argued that their work was towards enforcing this policy at national, regional and

local levels. These factors help situate housing as a dominate issue during the period for the

organization.

Next, public stereotypes of black women such as the matriarch, and the welfare queen

have been used to degrade their roles as mothers, and recipients of social services. These

stereotypes were facilitated during the period through social welfare propaganda and arguments

from sociologist Daniel Moynihan. In fact, empirical studies such as Monahan, Shtrulis and

Givens (2005) have shown in an experimental setting when people are exposed to stereotypes of

black women then they are more likely to consistently associate them with stereotypes.

163

Hancock (2004) found that stereotypes of the welfare queen in news media had a negative

impact on welfare legislation and Foster (2008) also finds that race, class and gender all impact

legislation and Foster (2008) also finds that race, class and gender all impact support of social

welfare, in other words research studies have shown that negative stereotypes of black women

profoundly impact perspectives of them in relation to policies that could assist them. These

163

Monahan, Shtrulis, and Givens, 2005.

stereotypes and the impact they have on the actual lives and experiences of black women helps to

pinpoint what defense would look like in the area of housing for the population, which I will

specify in the presentation of NAACP cases. The final point to set up the presentation of the

cases is that there was an evident increase in black female led households during the period. The

rise of black female led households can highlight housing and housing related issues as a

significant area for black women.

What should be taken from this introduction to cases is that (1) NAACP advocacy

towards enforcing federal antidiscrimination law and specifically the Fair Housing Act makes

housing an important issue area for the period; (2) the propagated stereotypes of black women

can help pinpoint what defense in this area would look like for the population; and (3) the rise of

black female led households during the period pinpoint housing and issues related to housing as

an important issue area for the demographic. These are the points that help to frame the

following data analysis.

The cases taken from the NAACP archives reflecting housing advocacy efforts are

organized into two primary groups. The first are cases involving the systemic practices of cities

and regional areas towards restricting access to housing for black women. These cases involved

groups of black women with shared characteristics being low income and single head of

households. Second, housing advocacy is organized based on individual complaints from black

women of circumstances including eviction, no or limited access to low income housing,

emergency housing and poor housing quality. It is essential to note that the largest portion of

black women included here from the NAACP archives reflected in the following chart are single,

black women who experience discrimination or limited access to low income housing. For the

purpose of clarity, the below chart provides a general breakdown of the cases discussed in this

chapter. The chart shows the name of the individual as documented in NAACP records, and a

brief description of the case. For the purpose of centralizing common housing issues and

NAACP advocacy, individuals are grouped together according to the details of the cases. These

groupings include large scale district cases with individual cases. Following further analysis of

the chart, I distinguish more clearly between those that are group cases, from those that are

individual complaints filed with the NAACP.

Figure 4.2: Groupings of Housing Advocacy Patterns

164

Named Individuals

Housing Issue

Housing Advocacy Basis

Queen Cohen

Segregation in Savannah low

income housing, unsafe

housing conditions in low

income housing

Unsafe housing conditions for

women with minor children

Evelyn Davis

Myrtle Brown

Geraldine Brown

Dorothy Reeves

Isabel Reeves

Head of household, unable to

obtain housing

Housing discrimination

Queen E Austin

Linda Mobley

Dorothy Suttle

Alice Day

Estella Sistrunk

Willie Mae Peterson

Mattie Mae Grant

Sadie Mae Grant

Laverne Smith Roberts

Access to low income

housing /emergency housing

assistance

Sudden loss of income from

absent or deserted spouse

Sense of urgency heightened

because of minor children in

the care of black women

Minimum income and fewer

childcare options

Advocacy for social

assistance related to housing

164

The named individuals are grouped according to the nature of the cases, as defined in the third column. The

named individuals are not necessarily in the same case, those that are, detailed in the following pages.

Dorothy Paul

Patricia Link

Mary Lee Cobb

Mrs. Barnett

*Unnamed Black Woman (1)

Unnamed Black Woman

(*Jane Doe*)

Mary Grigsby

Sandra K Gibbs

Racial violence from residing

in predominantly white

neighborhoods

Endangerment of children

Before going into the details of the cases in Figure 4.2 and distinguishing group cases

from individual ones, I will discuss how this general breakdown fits into the analysis framed by

the aforementioned points. The middle column shows segregation, racial violence, and housing

access as broad topic areas for housing. These broad issue areas can be reminiscent of the

NAACP’s efforts to enforce antidiscrimination policies, and specifically parts of the Fair

Housing Act of 1968. Specifically, the portion of the Fair Housing Act prohibiting the restriction

of access and discrimination, effects of segregation, on the basis of race, color, religion, sex,

national origin, familial status or disability (“Fair Housing Act of 1968” 2012, p. 231). The

middle column pinpoints enforcement of federal housing law as an important area and it shows

in-part that the NAACP’s broad issue areas, connect to areas of the Fair Housing Act of 1968.

The third column focuses further on the details of these cases involving black women. The issues

in this column include income related topics as well as single household heads with and without

children. This last column provides some connection to the actual experiences of marginalization

related to propagated stereotypes. Specifically, defense appears to be pinpointed in areas where

black women could have been discriminated against based on stereotypes degrading their roles

as mothers as well as their access to financial assistance. Specific details of particular cases show

the latter points, but also largely represent the rise of black female head of households.

The first case examined here is one involving black women emerging out of the City of

Norwalk, Ohio in 1987 (see Figure 4.3). The case involved four black women who were single,

head of household and seeking low income housing. Evelyn Davis, Myrtle Preston, Geraldine

Brown, and Dorothy Reeves were denied access to low income housing from the City of

Norwalk and the NAACP pursued the case describing it as, “The class [action] consists of all

minority and female head households of low income minority concentrations has been limited or

denied by the defendant, City of Norwalk.”

165

Each of the women in this case are described in the

archive as head of households and low income. These details and the fact that these cases

occurred within the period where there was a rise in black female led households shows two

important things. First, it begins to show how within the NAACP enforcing public housing

policies, there was recognition of the impact of marginalization and the significance of housing

in the lives of a growing population; single black women head of households. Second, the fact

that these women were prevented from accessing low income housing specifically can relate to

the impact of propagated stereotypes of black women, on their actual lives and needs.

Specifically, black women being denied low income housing can be related to public stereotypes

of them being undeserving of such forms of social assistance (propagated through the “Welfare

Queen” stereotype). As explained in previous pages, stereotypes have historically informed

public perceptions of black women, despite these stereotypes being false and rooted in racism

and sexism. For the purpose of clarity, the below figure shows the details of the individuals from

this case.

165

City of Norwalk Ohio vs. NAACP, Part 5, Box 202, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Figure 4.3.

Evelyn Davis

Black, female, low income, head of household

Myrtle Preston

Black, female, low income, head of household

Geraldine Brown

Black, female, low income, head of household

Dorothy Reeves

Black, female, low income, head of household

In 1977 the NAACP pursued a case against the United States Department of Housing and

Urban Development, addressing discrimination in the Boston Metropolitan area against the

Commonwealth of Massachusetts specifically. Before going into details of the case it is

important to briefly discuss the context of Boston Massachusetts during the period and the

prevalence of racial discrimination during the 1970s. Racial discrimination in Boston during the

second half of the twentieth century is largely associated with black activism as well as the

busing crisis in 1974, just three years before this NAACP case. In the decades before 1974, “

black Bostonians waged a variety of campaigns that confronted discrimination in areas of

employment, education, housing, welfare and schooling.”

166

And in 1974, Boston Public

Schools were ordered to provide busing for students between Roxbury and South Boston;

predominantly black and white neighborhoods respectively.

167

This order resulted in violent

protests targeted towards black youth bused in to attend historically white schools. Details about

Boston provides context of the following case and clarifies why NAACP language about the case

is tied to a larger goal of eliminated racial discrimination in Boston.

The Boston case engaged prosecution of administrators at HUD including Patricia

Harris, Edward Pollock, and Edward Martin and their successors for systemic housing

166

Zebulon V. Miletsky, “Before Busing: Boston's Long Movement for Civil Rights and the Legacy of Jim Crow in

the ‘Cradle of Liberty,’ ” Journal of Urban History (2017), p. 205.

167

Miletsky, “Before Busing.”

discrimination and specifically the failure to enforce The Fair Housing Act of 1968.

168

The case

was built on the testimonies of ten individuals, eight out of the ten testimonies came from single

black women. Four of these individuals represent black female head of households with low

incomes. The individuals classified as low income of this group includes Mary Lee Cobb,

Patricia Link, Dorothy Paul, and Laverne Roberts. The NAACP pursued a case for these

individuals in order to show recognition of, and eliminate discrimination in the Boston

Metropolitan area as part of a larger effort, “Working to eradicate racial discrimination in

housing, employment and education affecting its members and other racial minorities in Boston

metropolitan area, and therefore seeks to compel defendants to enforce the requirements of

law.”

169

Included in this case, were individual members of the NAACP Doris Bunte, Robert

Forts, and Melvin H. King, all of whom resided in a predominantly black neighborhood in a

southern district of Massachusetts. According to NAACP records, these individuals had worked

to form a black Caucus representing black residents bringing resources and activities to

predominantly black areas of Massachusetts. The goal of these representatives was to improve

the condition of all black residents residing in metropolitan areas of Boston Massachusetts

(NAACP Part 2. NAACP vs Commonwealth of Massachusetts). Individuals representing the demographic

of impacted black women, are included below from direct plaintiff descriptions in NAACP vs

Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Plaintiff Kay Gibbs, is the first listed in the sample, who was

denied equal benefits as well as access to white neighborhoods to investigate patterns of

discrimination against black applicants.

168

NAACP v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts Case Docket, Part 2, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress,

Washington, DC.

169

NAACP v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts Case Docket, Part 2, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress,

Washington, DC.

The following descriptions of the plaintiffs from these cases are included below. As

stated earlier, eight out of the ten plaintiffs defended by the NAACP in this case were black

women. Half of the black women were low income and head of their households according to

NAACP documents. The black women not included with these descriptions were NAACP staff,

a black women married with children, and a black man. After these descriptions I will explain

how they fit into the analysis.

Plaintiff Mary Lee Cobb, is a black citizen of the United States and the Commonwealth

of Massachusetts. She resides in a predominantly black apartment complex in Dorchester

where she relocated after her former apartment leased by The Boston Housing Authority

was damaged by fire. Plaintiff Cobbs was actively seeking low cost decent housing in an

integrated neighborhood, but as a low income minority person she was denied equal

access to said housing by the defendants whom are required to enforce fair housing

requirements. Therefore, the defendant’s failure to enforce the applicable civil rights

statutory and regulatory provisions denies Cobb her right to equal access to the benefits

of the CDBG program [Community Development Block Grant; a program of HUD to

provide funding for low income housing]

Plaintiff Patricia Link is a black citizen of the United States of low income who resides in

the predominantly black Franklin Field Housing Development which is operated by the

Boston Housing Authority. Her apartment is in a substandard building located in a

predominantly minority and badly deteriorated area. Over the past three years she has

repeatedly attempted to transfer to a safe and decent leased housing located in a racially

integrated area but has been unable to obtain access to such housing. Therefore, the

defendants [sic]failure to enforce the applicable civil rights statutory and regulatory

provisions denies plaintiff Link her right to equal access and benefits of the CDBG

program.

Plaintiff Dorothy Paul is a black citizen of the United States and the Commonwealth of

Massachusetts. She resides in Mission Hill, a predominantly black substandard public

housing project in Roxbury, Massachusetts owned and operated by the Boston Housing

Authority and funded through HUD. Paul seeks to secure decent, low cost housing in an

integrated neighborhood but as a low income minority person she is denied equal access

to housing opportunities by the policies of the Boston Housing Authority which policies

have approved and projects financed by HUD. Therefore, the defendants failure to

enforce the applicable civil rights statutory and regulatory provisions denies plaintiff Paul

her right to equal access to the benefits of the CDBG program.

Plaintiff Laverne Smith Roberts is a black female citizen of the United States, and the

Commonwealth of Massachusetts and resides in a predominantly black neighborhood in

Mattapan Massachusetts. Plaintiff Roberts seeks to be able to secure decent, low cost

housing including public housing in an integrated safe and less overcrowded

neighborhood in Boston. However, there are sections of the city, such as Charleston, East

Boston and South Boston where even if there were apartments, she would be afraid to

live, not only because of racial incidents reported in the media but because she was

personally attacked by whites while driving her car through south Boston in the summer

of 1975. Therefore, the failure of the defendants to enforce the applicable civil rights

statutory and regulatory provisions denies plaintiff Roberts her right to equal access and

benefits of the CDBG program.

Mary Lee Cobb, Patricia Link, Dorothy Paul, and Laverne Roberts are individuals who

were denied access to low-income housing similar to those represented in the Ohio case. Also

similar to the Ohio case, this case involved black female headed households, also occurred

during the same period where there was a documented rise in black female led households.

Evidence from this case supports the same points from as the previous one. The points are (1)

recognition of the impact of marginalization and the significance of housing in the lives of a

growing population; single black women head of households and (2) the fact that these women

were prevented from accessing low income housing specifically can relate to the impact of

propagated stereotypes of black women, on their actual lives and needs. In addition to denied

access to low income housing the issues represented here are access to low income housing in

predominantly white areas and violence in integrated public housing.

A similar case emerged out of New Haven Connecticut, where the local NAACP

covered a case of housing discrimination for black women fitting the same demographic as the

previous groups. The black women in this case were Madeleine Hicks, and another who was only

referred to as Jane Doe. These individuals were described as single, black heads of household

who were seeking low-income housing through a scattered housing site program in New Haven,

Connecticut, that oversaw low-income housing throughout one specific jurisdiction. Descriptions

of the plaintiffs in this case, are included here:

“Jane Doe” an African American resident of Milford who is eligible for the scattered site

housing program. She and her family wish to remain in Milford and continue attending

Milford Public Schools. Without the scattered site housing opportunity, she and her

family may be forced to leave Milford and move to a more racially isolated community.

Mrs. Doe seeks permission to prosecute this case using a fictitious name because of her

well founded fears of racial harassment.

Madeline Hicks is a low income African American female resident of Bridgeport. She

and her family are eligible for the proposed scattered site public housing units in Milford

and would like to apply to live in these units. Mrs. Hicks seeks to live in a more racially

integrated community and objects to the town of Milford’s policies and actions which

have diminished her housing opportunities and effectively excluded her family from the

community.

170

Jane Doe and Madeline Hicks were also discussed as being black female heads of household

prevented from accessing a type of low income housing referred to in this case as the scattered

site housing program in New Haven. The details of these women’s experiences with

marginalization fit the same points highlighted in the previous two cases.

The following cases pursued by the NAACP in defense of black women with regard to

housing discrimination highlight individual experiences while still providing evidence of the

NAACP defending black female led households. These cases are not directly tied to larger

federal suits, but reflect issues recognized by the NAACP impacting black women and provide

evidence of attention to issues that may have impacted black women because of stereotypes and

possible discrimination against the rise of black female led households during the period. The

following cases show that the NAACP defended black women on the basis of housing related

issues such as eviction, increased rent, or inability to pay back rent because of changes in income

resulting from no spousal support and limited employment opportunities. In most of the cases

presented here, black single women heads of low-income households were a population

significantly impacted by housing discrimination especially in the years surrounding the passing

170

New Haven Branch Case Docket, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. In these cases, the NAACP not only advocated on behalf of

housing but also issues related to housing such as emergency assistance, and access to food

stamps.

The following set of cases represent the NAACP actions on behalf of black women

placing individual complaints of instances of alleged housing discrimination. The individuals

represent branches in cities in Georgia, Texas, and Alabama.

Ms. Isabell Larry from Tuskegee, Alabama, is the first black woman to be discussed

here. Ms. Larry approached the NAACP for assistance with housing and emergency assistance

for herself and her family after being deserted by her husband. A description of her case is

included below:

Mrs. Isabell Larry of Tuskegee came by the state office and requested assistance in

getting for herself and three children housing and possible assistance from the emergency

relief program. Mrs. Larry has no income and cannot locate her husband. She is presently

living with her sister. Contact was made with the housing authority, but little could be

done since Mrs. Larry has no income. However, she has made an application with the

department of pensions and security for assistance. In another effort to secure funds for

Mrs. Larry so she could afford a housing unit contract was made with Mr. Butch jones at

the relocation office. Again, no funds were available. After taking an application from

Mrs. Larry for the emergency relief fund she was informed that his office would continue

to seek help in order to provide her family with housing.

Mrs. Larry is a single black woman who became the head of her household after being deserted

by her husband. Being a single black women and attempting to access state financial support are

details that tie her to the previous cases discussed in this chapter. Details from this case in

particular shows the NAACP addressing the immediate needs of a black women head of

household, this case the organizations seem to be repeatedly attempting to help Ms. Larry with

getting low income housing and emergency funding because of her sudden head of household

status.

The case of Ms. Queen E Austin is similar, with the NAACP attempting to get her

emergency access to low income housing and some form of supplemented income.

Mrs. Queen E Austin of Davisville Community, Macon County, came to the state office

and requested assistance in finding housing. She moved from one location where she

shared cropped for over ten years. And is presently renting a house for 40 dollars a month

[sic]. However, she only makes 49 dollars per month from ADC [Aid to Dependent

Children]and is under medical care. Contact was made with the Macon county

community action agency and the case discussed. Mrs. R. Price, Director of

Neighborhood service system, said she would send a worker out to see Mrs. Austin and

see if they could help her find another house for less rent or get the present rent lowered.

They will also explore other means of increasing Mrs. Austin's income. No further

information as of this report date.

This brief description contextualizes the difficulty black women may have faced in various parts

of the country. However, the amount of money she received was not enough to afford food,

housing and other living expenses. Although these women lived in precarious situations they

filed complaints with the NAACP with the hope that the NAACP could aid them in winning their

cases. The final two cases detailed in this chapter involve two women impacted by similar issues

and defended by the NAACP according to these issues. Mrs. Linda Mobley and Dorothy Subtle

both engaged the NAACP on issues of accessing financial support as well as access to low

income housing in Alabama. Details from the Mobley case reveal that she was attempting to

receive financial assistance from the Tuskegee branch of the NAACP after a recent divorce and

being indebted to the local housing authority. Further details from the investigation conducted by

the local NAACP and the outcome is included below.

Mrs. Linda Mobley of Tuskegee came into the state office and asked the field director to

assist her in either locating housing or a means of paying back rent to the Tuskegee

Housing Authority in the amount of 125 Mrs. Mobley has recently gotten a divorce and

has no income. According to Mrs. Mobley, she was asked to vacate the unit she now lives

in. He also stated that she attends Southern Vocational College and was supposed to

receive a check for attending. An investigation revealed that Mrs. Mobley would not

receive a check because there was no such summer program. It was also revealed that no

letter to vacate had been issued. Contact was made with the housing authority to see what

could be worked out for Mrs. Mobley . The director informed us that he would take a 50

dollar payment and work out an installment plan. She got a job and was told to contact

the department to work out a payment arrangement to catch up on back rent.

The final case is that of Dorothy Suttle also emerged from Alabama, but from the city of

Talladega. Mrs. Suttle came to the NAACP with a claim that she was being evicted because she

was unable to pay her rent and her utility bill. The local NAACP investigated the claim, and also

the circumstances of her eviction. The details of Ms. Suttle’s case, as well as what the NAACP

was able to provide for her are included in the below excerpt.

The Childersburg Alabama Branch filed suit against the Talladega Housing Authority for

allegedly evicting a tenant. Mrs. Dorothy Suttle was evicted because she was unable to

pay her rent and excess utility bill simultaneously. The lease states that in the event rent

is not paid by the sixth day of the month, a late charge of ten dollars will be added to the

tenants [sic]account as part of the charge owed. All charges for maintenance , repairs and

replacements, and excess utility charges shall not come due and collectible prior to the

first day of the second month following the month in which charges are incurred. The

case was heard on October 7, 1977. It was argued by the NAACP retained attorney

Robert Jones and the judge ruled in favor of Mrs. Suttle.

The cases discussed in the previous pages are included from the twenty cases emerging

mostly from the period following the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing provision in

1968. As stated earlier, most of these cases emerged as the NAACP sought to enforce anti-

discrimination legislation in the area, and the core of my argument, a subsequent defense in the

rise of black female led households during the period. Additional archive information for the

period detailed that the organization worked to address significant cuts to low-income housing,

as well as addressing broad scale discrimination in its local areas. For example, Between 1945

and 1948, the NAACP formed partnerships with the Women’s Council to fight against cuts to

low-income housing.

171

The NAACP also campaigned during these years to stop the U.S. Public

Housing Administration from making a 6.5 million dollar cut to low income housing. The

organization arguing that a 6.5 million dollar cut would impact 60% Negros including 85,000

171

LDF Box 291, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

100

Negro families and 350,000 Negro workers. In addition, the NAACP national headquarters staff

proposed that housing be at the forefront of issues emerging after 1950.

172

In summary, this chapter has shown that while the NAACP generally challenged lack of

access to low income housing and advocated that cities comply with fair housing polices, the

cases that black women filed offer insight into their experiences at the nexus of race, gender, and

class in the twentieth century. Low-income black women faced particular challenges due to the

intersection of race, class and gender. They made the effort to seek better housing in cities such

as Boston and Connecticut. Nevertheless, racial violence and discrimination prevented them

from securing the housing they sought for themselves and their families. Deteriorating housing

stock in black communities and the hope that racially integrated neighborhoods led the women to

seek housing outside of their communities. These cases offer a glimpse into the NAACP’s

defense of some of the most marginalized people during this time period: single black women

who were the heads of their households. While respectability politics invaded many middle class,

black organizations including the NAACP, these cases shed light on the lesser-known ways that

the NAACP also sought to advocate for low-income black women. More importantly, we see

that the intersection of racism, classism and sexism profoundly had a negative effect on low

income black women they sought redress in their own way and did not simply acquiesce to their

marginalization.

172

Part 2, A40, Folder 11, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

101

CHAPTER FIVE

The Fight against Police Brutality

Police interaction in black communities in the United States is linked to racial

suppression, intimidation, response to social progress, and dehumanization by way of

criminalization. Grounded in the foundations of racial hierarchization in the United States,

policing—a genealogical derivative of slave patrols—emerged and evolved as a mechanism used

to control, degrade, and minimize the existence of Black Americans. In this chapter, I first

present the racial and gender context of police interaction in black communities. Specifically, I

discuss the history and role of police and define the pattern of racialization in policing practices.

To convey the particular gendered historical context in which I locate my dissertation, I then

discuss how gendered police violence targets black women and how stereotypes distort the

relationship of black women with violence. Following this contextualization, I analyze archival

evidence to argue that the specific police violence cases in which the NAACP interacted with

black women require an intersectional analysis in order to articulate the racialized and gendered

specificities of these black women’s experiences. More broadly, too, I argue that the NAACP

understood that police violence itself must be understood as an intersectional issue; in doing so,

the NAACP found ways to recognize and name the simultaneously racialized and gendered

experiences of black women.

Campaign Against Police Brutality: The Reality for Black Americans

The foundation of policing in the United States, like many things, is tied to slavery and

the need to maintain the racial hierarchy drawn from slavery.

173

Following the end of the Civil

War, what originally existed as slave patrols were adapted into police departments used to

173

Cooper, 2015; Collins, 2000; Alexander, 2010; Lecount, 2007; Marable, 2000; Spruill, 2016; Ritchie, 2017.

102

enforce Black Codes and Jim Crow laws with the end of maintaining racial hierarchization and

white supremacy.

174

The connection between slave patrols and police departments can be traced

to the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; however, understanding this genealogy is

foundational in conceptualizing the inherently racialized positioning of police departments.

175

Cooper states,

Policing has been integral to the construction and maintenance of racial hierarchies, and

that police forces themselves were originally established to enforce these hierarchies.

Slave patrols were the first state-sponsored police forces. These patrols consisted of white

property-owning men who were charged with preventing slave uprisings and escapes.

Slave patrols were particularly vital to maintaining White control in areas where there

were more slaves than Whites, and South Carolina, a state where Whites were

outnumbered, became the first state to establish them in 1704. Slave patrols had broad

authority and were permitted to enter slaves homes at will and punish fugitives.

176

The evolution of slave patrols into modern-day policing follows the changing social structures—

and the changing regimes that worked to suppress and surveil black life—in the United States

after emancipation and into the Reconstruction Era, through the Progressive Era of the late

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States, and into the current moment.

177

Historians like Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor have argued that policing during the Progressive Era

was inherently racialized. Recognizing the nature of policing during the Progressive Era—

typically periodized from 1890 to 1920—is significant because it helps establish how policing

not only boasts a direct connection to slave patrols but also perpetuates a pattern of racial bias.

This pattern of racial bias, which Taylor discusses below, can be considered as closely related to

policing throughout the twentieth century.

After emancipation, the purpose of racism, like the purpose of the police, was

transformed. Biologically inflected ideological explanations, no longer necessary to

justify enslavement, were deployed instead to justify the surveillance and control of black

174

Lecount, 2007; Marable, 2000; Taylor, 2016; Spruill, 2016; Hattery and Smith, 2018.

175

Cooper 2015.

176

Cooper 2015, 1189.

177

Taylor, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation.

103

people, especially black workers. ‘Black Codes,’ a series of laws, rules, and restrictions

imposed only on African Americans, criminalized poverty, movement and even leisure.

Blacks could be arrested for vaguely worded or innocuous ‘crimes’ such as vagrancy and

sentenced to ‘hard labor’ in slavery-like conditions as punishment. Law enforcement

officials could also “hire out” black vagrants to white employers to ‘work off’ their

sentences. African Americans had to produce labor contracts to prove they were not

vagrants or be hurled back into conditions intimately resembling slavery. The police were

deployed to enforce these codes, as agents of states still largely controlled by a white

planter class that had been militarily defeated but not quite economically and politically

destroyed. Racism and modern policing were thus mutually constitutive in reinforcing the

subjugated status of blacks.

178

Following this foundation is a series of policy strategies to criminalize black communities

especially towards the end of subjugation after World War II. The many factors emerging after

World War II led to changes in the way black populations were criminalized in urban spaces.

Black communities were increasingly policed and militarized during this era because of limited

economic opportunities coupled with the more practical shortcomings of policy changes during

this era and global factors emerging with World War II (Taylor, 2016; Alexander, 2010). In

addition, mass migration to northern cities during this era led to an increase demand for housing,

employment, and social programs for the changing population. Black communities organized

their communities around demands for resources in the short term and what Robin D. G. Kelley

has called freedom dreams in the long term:

The developing black militancy, fueled by political dynamics within the United States as

well as the global uprisings of Black and Brown people against colonialism, set the US

state on a collision course with its Black population. African Americans had certainly

campaigned against racial injustice long before the civil rights era, but the confluence of

several overlapping events brought Black grievances into sharper focus. (Taylor, 2016, p.

33)

The response of legislators to this increasingly radical Black American population was to use

criminalizing rhetoric and police force to repress the population.

179

In her book on mass

178

Taylor, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, 108.

179

Alexander, The New Jim Crow; Taylor, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation; Skolnick & Fyfe, Above

the Law: Police and the Use of Excessive Force.

104

incarceration, The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander (2010) pinpoints this targeted method of

policing:

The rhetoric of ‘law and order’ was first mobilized in the late 1950s as southern

governors and law enforcement officials attempted to generate and mobilize white

opposition to The Civil Rights Movement. In the years following Brown vs Board of

Education, civil rights activists used direct-action tactics in an effort to force reluctant

Southern states to desegregate public facilities. Southern governors and law enforcement

officials often characterized these tactics as criminal and argued that the rise of the Civil

Rights Movement was indicative of a breakdown of law and order. Support of Civil

Rights legislation was derided by southern conservatives as merely ‘rewarding

lawbreakers.’ For more than a decade, from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s,

conservatives systematically linked opposition to the civil rights legislation to calls for

law and order, arguing that Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy of civil disobedience was

a leading cause of crime. Civil Rights protesters were frequently depicted as criminals

rather than political in nature, and federal courts were accused of excessive “leniency”

towards lawlessness, therefore contributing to the spread of crime. In the words of then

vice president, Richard Nixon, the increasing crime rate, “ can be traced directly to the

spread of the corrosive doctrine that every citizen possess an inherent right to decide for

himself which laws to obey and when to disobey them.

180

The rhetoric of law in order existed during the same period where the social support for

the pathologizing doctrine from Daniel Moynihan. In his now well-known government report,

The Negro Family: A Case for National Action, Moynihan attributed black rebellion in urban

centers to black pathology and alleged behaviors and cultural characteristics of Black

Americans.

181

Rhetoric fueled this doctrine and public policy seeking to criminalize civil rights

was adopted by both conservatives and many black activists seeking to connect poverty and

crime to personal responsibility, “conservatives could point to black support for highly punitive

approaches to dealing with the problems of the urban poor as proof that race had nothing to do

with the law and order agenda.”

182

180

Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 40.

181

Moynihan, “The Negro Family.”

182

Alexander, The New Jim Crow, 42.

105

Policing is racialized through its connection to the foundation of the American slavery in

asserting white supremacy and has been reproduced through strategies to suppress radicalization

and respond to social progress in the twentieth century. In addition, during the twentieth century,

policing transformed as a mechanism of the elite to suppress the poor and working classes. The

black population in the United States has disproportionately represented these groups from

intentional, historically racist economic and social marginalization.

183

In essence, through the

connection of American capitalism to American policing, the black population in the United

States has historically been criminalized. Taylor (2016) highlights this criminalization as an

tactic of racial capitalism: “the racism of the police, historically, has also overlapped with the

economic needs of business and the state to create a racialized political economy that is

particularly burdensome on black communities.”

184

Historians like Manning Marable (2000) and Allison and Burleigh Gardner (1941) have

expanded on racial capitalism and its impact on black communities in the United States. In How

Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America, Marable (2000) highlights the connection between

American capitalist violence and the black population in the United States. He proposes three

characteristics of the social and economic positioning of black people caused by American

capitalism. Marable explains that the black community in the United States are particularly

devastated by the ravage of capitalism for three reasons:

(1) it is concentrated in the lowest paid, blue collar, unskilled and service sectors of the

labor force; (2) it comprises a substantial portion of the total U.S. reserve army of labor,

the last hired and the first fired during periodic recessions; and (3) it is the historic target

of brutality within a racist culture and society, occupying an inferior racial position which

has remained unaffected since the demise of slavery.

185

183

Alexander, The New Jim Crow; Taylor, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation; Marable, How Capitalism

Underdeveloped Black America; Hattery & Smith, The Social Dynamics of Family Violence.

184

Taylor, From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, 108.

185

Marable, How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America, 95.

106

While Marable argues the logic of American capitalism existing to the detriment of black people,

Allison and Burleigh Gardner present how policing is used as a mechanism of the elite in

American Capitalism, to suppress the working and poor class, which is disproportionately black

(1941). This connection again propagates the notion that policing is also racialized through its

capitalist counterpart.

The policemen themselves are drawn principally from the upper-lower class with a few

from the lower middle class, and their behavior patterns are characteristic of these

groups. In effect, the system of law enforcement places in a position of considerable

authority some members of these classes subordinate in the white social structure, with

the first stages of law enforcement almost entirely in their control. They not only are in a

position to officially subordinate persons below them, but because of the sanctions of the

law, may also arrest persons above them in social class. Yet except for periodic waves of

enforcement of minor traffic regulations, the police seldom arrest upper-class or upper-

middle class whites. It is recognized that these groups are generally immune from police

control except in very flagrant violations of the laws under unusual circumstances. Thus,

an upper-class individual may be drunk in the streets, and the police will either ignore

him or escort him home. If an upper-class individual is drunk very frequently, the police

may keep him in jail overnight, but only rarely is he booked and tried for the offense.

(Davis, Gardner, and Gardner, 1941, p. 510)

In addition to the connection between race, class, and policing, the culture of law enforcement is

inherently connected to the community.

186

Social scientists have studied this connection and as I

will present later, the NAACP has also recognized this in their platform of addressing the

dysfunctional relationship between police and black Americans in the 20th century. In “Violence

and the Police,” William Westley provides a definition of the relationship police have to the

community:

A police department is intimately related to the community in which it is located and in

which it serves. The personnel of the department are drawn from the community and

have a personal involvement in the life and values of the community. The men on the job

are responsible for the public definitions of behavior. The nature of the community

determines many of the problems that the police department must meet. The political

structure of the community may have an important influence on the actions of the

186

Skolnick & Fyfe, Above the Law: Police and the Use of Excessive Force; Westley, “Violence and the Police.”

107

department and the areas of law enforcement that it emphasizes. Therefore, it is important

that a description of the community should preface one of the department itself.

187

In summary, police violence against black people has a long historical genealogy in black

communities. Black people have historically been criminalized generally, and Black women

experiences specifically have reflected race-based violence from police as well as gender-based

violence.

Before I offer an in-depth analysis of the NAACP’s cases of black women who

experienced police brutality from 1945 to 1995, I discuss in the next section how black women

have experienced police violence in distinct ways and particularly how black women are pushed

into the discursive periphery of the issue through sexism. In other words, black women

experience police violence in racialized and gendered ways; furthermore, these narratives of

black women being targeted in racial, gendered ways by police violence are often overlooked

(though recent movements like #SayHerName have been militating against that tendency).

Black Women’s Invisibility and the Distortion of the Impact of Violence

In this section, I explore why and how the stories of black women targeted by police

violence have been rendered less visible in popular, scholarly, and activist discourse. I examine,

too, how even that process of making these narratives of black women less prominent than

narratives of black men is a racial and gendered one. Specifically, I discuss the several aspects of

race and gender-based marginalization for black women, and I argue that this marginalization

results in a discursive invisibility around acts of violence and the impact of violence. This

context of racialized, gendered (in)visibility will then be used to present my analysis of the

NAACP cases of police brutality in defense of black women. In analyzing the NAACP cases in

187

Westley, “Violence and the Police.” 1970, 71

108

this chapter, I argue that recuperating and re-reading the NAACP’s advocacy in concert with

these black women consituents effectively militates against this legacy of black women’s

invisibility in the twentieth century archival records.

Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, discourse concerning state

violence—violence that stems from a broad array of sources, including policies, practices, and

ideologies that criminalize black populations—have focused on popularizing the subjectivity of

black men (Ritchie, 2017). Black women are largely overlooked in the discourse of police

violence in black communities, an argument that has been advanced by various thinkers like

Kimberlé Crenshaw and Andrea Ritchie, among many others. This erasure of black women can

be considered a form of gendered violence within a racial reality specific to black women,

because it ignores the impact of violence on the basis of gender.

188

The legacy of this

marginalization can be connected to how the public image of black women has been

manipulated, and how that social manipulation impacts the way issues are viewed as impacting

the population. Specifically, controlling images rooted in colonialization and slavery distort how

public ills are viewed as impacting black women. These images distort the public's view of black

women's labor, sexuality, anger and experiences with violence.

Historically, in the United States the social identities of black women have been situated

in the social periphery through centuries of race and gender based discrimination and

manipulation.

189

The identities of black women have been marginalized from the desire to

objectify them for white and patriarchal economic and political domination (Collins 2000).

Examples of this marginalization emerge in the images used to objectify black women,

188

Ritchie, Invisible No More; West, Violence in the Lives of Black Women.

189

Collins, Black Feminist Thought; hooks, Ain’t I a Woman; Wallace, Black Macho; Ritchie, Invisible No More;

Sartain, Invisible Activists.

109

dehumanizing them through racism, while denying them humanity by distancing them from

white femininity. In the text Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives on Black Women Writers,

Barbara Christian (1985) highlights how the mammy image is a racialized image used to exploit

the labor of black women during slavery even as it removes them from the humanizing quality of

femininity:

The mammy figure, Aunt Jemima, the most prominent black female figure in southern

white literature, is in direct contrast to the ideal white woman, though both images are

dependent on each other for their effectiveness. Mammy is black in color, fat, nurturing,

religious, kind, and above all strong, and as Faulkner would call ditzy, enduring. She

relates to the world as an all-embracing figure, and she herself needs or demands little,

her identity derived mainly from a nurturing service. She must be plump and have big

breasts, and arms, she is the mammy in the unconsciousness of the South, desired and

needed since ideal white women would have to debase themselves in order to be a

mother. In contrast, the white woman was supposed to be frail, alabaster white, incapable

of doing hard work, shimmering with the beauty of a frail crystal.

190

The image of the mammy showcases the alienation and marginalization of black women from

humanity or humanhood. At the same time, this representation narrowly restricts black

femininity to domestic economic exploitation, relegating black women to the role of “cook,

housekeeper, nursemaid, seamstress” and the like.

191

The ideas presented here become socially

dominant through what Collins (2000) characterizes as a process of normalization: “Within U.S.

culture, racist and sexist ideologies permeate the social structure to such a degree that they

become hegemonic, namely seen as natural, normal, and inevitable.”

192

The racist and sexist

ideologies Collins highlights as hegemonic, also impact perception of black women in relation to

violence and specifically how they are impacted by state violence.

190

Barbara Christian, Black Feminist Criticism: Perspectives of Black Women Writers (New York: Pergamon Press,

1985), 2.

191

Collins, Black Feminist Thought, 5.

192

Collins, Black Feminist Thought, 5.

110

The mammy image shows only one of the many ways in which black women’s identities

have been reduced through the combination of racism and sexism. This specific example relates

directly to the labor exploitation I discuss in greater detail in Chapter 6, which examines

employment discrimination against black women. Other stereotypical images of black women

include the jezebel, sapphire, welfare queen, and the matriarch. The jezebel represents a woman

who is hypersexual. The welfare queen is viewed as someone who is lazy and dependent. The

sapphire is viewed as a hot tempered woman with inappropriate anger. And the matriarch is

viewed as a failed maternal figure blamed for black poverty. What these images represent

individually is not as critical for my discussion as what their existence in general represents.

Taken collectively as dominant representations of black women, these images—and the

circulation of them in social narratives—represent how black women are “othered.” Specifically,

these representations and controlling images deny black women access to humanity and

femininity. As Barbara Christian states in reference to U.S. history, “the enslaved African

woman became the basis for the definition of our society’s other.”

193

As a result of “othering,”

black women exist at the margins of society, and black women’s identities become the very basis

over and against which whiteness and masculinity construct themselves. In other words,

whiteness (which is also gendered) and masculinity (which is also racialized) mobilize distorted

narratives and images of black women as the other in order to reinforce racial gender hierarchies

as they exist in society.

These racialized, gendered, and classed narratives of black women that circulate in

society constitute the foundations of the racial gendered hierarchy in the United States. Patricia

Collins (2000) articulates as, “society continues to view black women through a series of

193

Christian, Black Feminist Criticism, 160.

111

controlling narratives constructed through slavery.”

194

bell hooks makes a similar argument in

her book Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism (1981). hooks writes that “the success

of sexist- racist conditioning of American people in regard to black women” and “devaluation of

black womanhood occurred as a result of the sexual exploitation of black women during slavery

that has not altered the course of hundreds of years.”

195

In essence, social conditioning through

the historical distancing of black women as the other distorts how they are viewed, and how

society ignores and neglects their actual needs. In order to articulate this point clearly, I will

definitely expand on the controlling image of the “Jezebel” and the “Sapphire” because their

interpretation relates to the secondary consequence stated here.

The image of the “Sapphire” and “Jezebel” are controlling images tied to historical

exploitation of black women. Understanding how these images are used, and what specific

aspect of exploitation they relate to, helps establish the argument of how the impact of violence

is distorted in perceptions of black women through centuries of race and sex based

marginalization. In Ain’t I a Woman, bell hooks provides a definition and the historical context

of the image of “Sapphire”:

The Sapphire image was popularized by the radio and television show Amos n Andy in

which Sapphire is the nagging, shrewish wife of Kingfish. As the title indicates, the show

focused on the black male characters. Sapphire’s shrewish personality was used primarily

to create sympathy in viewers for the black male lot. The Sapphire identity has been

projected onto any black woman who overtly expressed bitterness, anger, and rage about

her lot.

196

The image of the “Sapphire” is used to distort perceptions of black women’s anger. Carolyn

West argues that “societal expectations discourage displays of anger, and often appropriately

194

Collins, Black Feminist Thought.

195

hooks, Ain’t I a Woman, 53.

196

hooks, Ain’t I a Woman, 85.

112

assertive behavior by underrepresented minorities.”

197

Historically black women have

experienced injustices at the intersection of race, sex, and class, and as scholars have argued their

anger and expressions of their anger is justified.

198

This image as it relates to the connection

between historical manipulation of black women and public perceptions distorts how anger is

viewed and addressed for black women. This stereotype controlling image has real world

consequences for black women. As Carolyn West writes in her article, “Mammy, Sapphire, and

Jezebel: Historical Images of Black Women and their implications for Psychotherapy,” these

representations of black women have profound material consequences for black communities:

Mental health problems (e.g., psychosomatic conditions, depression, and low self-esteem)

can develop among women when anger is unexpressed. For Blacks, chronic anger and

stress, heightened with frequent encounters with discrimination, can potentially result in

in hypertension, particularly among darker skinned blacks of lower socioeconomic status

(p.461.

Just as the image of the “Sapphire” distorts real-world perceptions of the anger of black women,

the image of “Jezebel” distorts perceptions of the sexuality of black women. Collins (2000)

defines the “Jezebel” as “a deviant Black female sexuality.” Collins also expands, providing

historical positioning of the image.

The image of the Jezebel originated under slavery when black women were portrayed as

being, to use Jewelle Gomez’s words, ‘sexually aggressive wet nurses.’ Jezebel’s

function was to relegate all Black women to the category of sexually aggressive women,

thus providing a powerful rationale for widespread sexual assaults by black men typically

reported by Black slave women. Jezebel served yet another function. If Black slave

women could be portrayed as having excessive sexual appetites, then increased fertility

should be the expected outcome.

199

197

West, “Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel,” 461.

198

Lorde, Sister Outsider; West, “Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel”; Collins, Black Feminist Thought; hooks, Ain’t I

a Woman.

199

Collins, Black Feminist Thought, 89.

113

This image was used to normalize sexual violence for the purpose of “forced breeding” or rape

during slavery.

200

Though tied to the history of slavery, the image of “Jezebel” is relevant to how

institutions respond to sexual violence in regard to black women well into the 20th century.

Similar to the way the history of “Sapphire” distorts how anger and mental health is viewed in

black women, the image of “Jezebel” distorts how sexual violence is viewed in black women

because of the history of slavery in normalizing this violence. West states, “some mental health,

legal and medical professionals continue to minimize the violence in black women's lives.”

201

Through the combination of sexism and racism—in other words, an intersectional

convergence of systems of oppression— black women are pushed to the periphery of sexual

violence through what has been defined as the “Jezebel” image. The erasure of this violence in

the lives of black women is also connected to the history of medicine and experimentation on

black women, within a similar purview. The founding figure of modern gynecology, James

Marion Sims, experimented on the reproductive organs of black women, towards the end of

scientific discovery. According to Harriet Washington, Sims justified his continued use of these

barbaric methods on black women by invoking a racist rationale: “that blacks did not experience

pain in the same way as whites” (Washington, 2006). This racist logic builds on a foundational

assumption that black women are impervious to pain, and, even when the option of minimizing

that pain was available, doctors denied access to black women. Washington explains this in

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation:

Medical journals and professional word of mouth had detailed the inhalation of ether as

anesthesia since the early 1840s, and Sims knew of this, but he flatly refused to

administer anesthesia to the slave women and girls. He claimed that his procedures were,

‘not painful enough to justify the trouble and risk attending the administration,’ but this

claim rings hollow when one learns that Sims always administered anesthesia when he

200

West, Violence in the Lives of Black Women; West, “Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel”; hooks, Ain’t I a Woman;

Collins, Black Feminist Thought; Wallace, Black Macho.

201

West, Violence in the Lives of Black Women, 12.

114

performed the perfected surgery to repair the vaginas of white women in Montgomery a

few years later.

202

This example from Washington’s book provides a brief episode in the long tradition of historical

violence experienced by black women in the United States. The violence she is referring to

specifically emerges from racist medical exploitation. The examples of historical negation of

sexual violence as well as the latter collectively constitute a manifestation of a larger dialogue of

the othering of black women, and social manipulation of their identities (e.g., controlling

images), resulting in wide scale invisibility within issues such as violence. To reiterate a point

from earlier in the chapter, the gender experience of black women pushes them into the periphery

of an already racialized system of state violence. In the following section, I argue that the

NAACP advocacy in defense of black women functioned to counter this social invisibility in the

post-World War II era. Recuperating these narratives from the archive—with black women’s

lived experiences at the heart of them—in this dissertation offers a reminder of the work that the

NAACP was doing in the later part of the twentieth century to acknowledge, write, and capture

the experiences of black women into the archival record.

In Defense of Black Women: The NAACP Against Police Violence

The experiences of black women can be described by both the racialization of police

violence in black communities, as well as gender stereotypes used to distort the impact of this

violence in their lives. In order to discuss evidence of NAACP activities against police brutality

in the years after World War II to support the latter, the following analysis is structured into three

parts. First, I discuss factors that may have made advocacy against police brutality a significant

topic for the NAACP during the early years of the research period (1945 to 1995). Second, I

202

Washington, Medical Apartheid, 65.

115

introduce the NAACP’s general approach against police brutality noted by the NAACP at the

national level tied to racism and classism. Finally, I identify and analyze NAACP cases of

defense against violent police interaction in the experiences of black women. I am making two

arguments about the NAACP advocacy in these cases: first, I argue that NAACP interactions in

the lives of black women in these police brutality cases reflected a mode of resistance to the

marginalization of black women, and second, I argue that the NAACP militated against

representations of black women that distort the public’s perceptions of the impact of racialized

patterns of police violence in their lives.

As mentioned in the previous section, the social identities of black women can be

influenced by racial and gendered stereotypes. The result is that society does not articulate

violence in the same way it does for individuals not impacted by both the racism and sexism of

our society. In essence, through a combination of racism and sexism, black women can have a

distorted, as well as marginalized experience with state violence. Andrea Ritchie notes this

distinction in presenting her account of the House of Un-American Activities 1948 filing of a

petition with the United Nations documenting all crimes, especially sexually violent crimes

against black women at the hands of police.

The petition presented voluminous evidence of acts falling within the conventional

definition of genocide, gleaned from newspaper articles in the Black press and from

reports of civil rights groups, labor organizations, and occasional hearings by city, state

and federal government agencies, The petition described in many cases, police officers

abusing black women for failure to display what they considered appropriate

deference.

203

What Ritchie references here is intentional advocacy for black women victims of police violence

(which she is arguing is genocidal), in various organizations and in various levels of government.

She also appears to be noting that black women in these cases often encounter violence from

203

House of Un-American Activities 1948 filing of a petition with the United Nations, pp. 31–32.

116

police because of an alleged failure to show deference. Ritchie further acknowledges that black

women have been omitted from these narratives through a “legacy of marginalization” defined

by the tendency for the experiences of black women to be overlooked by racialized narratives of

violence popularizing the subjectivities of black men.

204

The root of Ritchie's point of the legacy

of marginalization can be connected to the historical systems of racism and patriarchy that

together situate the experiences of black women behind those of white women and black men.

In addition to the House of Un-American Activities Petition of 1948, the NAACP

National Convention of 1953 likely contributed to increasing advocacy against police violence in

the organization’s work in the decade following World War II. Part of what the NAACP

referenced at the organization’s 44th national convention in 1953 was the connection between

community prejudice and the prejudice of the police. Arthur L. Johnson, executive director of the

Detroit Branch of the NAACP, stated at the national convention that “there is considerable

evidence to indicate that police conduct in relation to Negros, and even Whites, is motivated by

fixed race and social class considerations and attitudes.”

205

With this statement from the national

convention, it can be argued that the NAACP had or was developing an essential awareness of

racial bias in policing in the early years following World War II. Police brutality was an issue

that was considered a form of discrimination and was a chronic daily form of repression.

206

During the postwar era, the NAACP had employed this connection of police to the community in

their platform explaining that police carry the same biases as the community they are inherently

connected to. The NAACP also outlined in that 1953 convention the reality of police violence

towards Black Americans and their more general strategies towards addressing this reality.

204

Ritchie, Invisible No More.

205

Arthur Johnson, 44th National Convention, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

206

Arthur Johnson, 44th National Convention, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

117

Johnson stated, “The prevailing anti Negro attitudes in the community and the continuing

presumption of a ‘Negro Crime’ problem underly the pattern of police mistreatment of Negro

Citizens.”

207

From this specific national convention, a set of recommendations emerged for

addressing the daily instances of police interaction in black communities. This set of

recommendations were based on an examination of postwar racial realities in the United States,

as well as expectations moving forward.

208

The recommendations for the period beginning in

1953 in regard to police brutality were as follows:

1. Investigation of police brutality complaints by the police department itself is an

inherently wrong procedure. A Citizen Review Board should be established for this

purpose with authority and power to adjudicate complaints and to make binding

recommendations to the head of the department. Any action on appeal from the

board’s decision should rest with the Mayor.

2. The hiring, placement, and promotion policies and practices of the Police Department

should be modified so as to eliminate race discrimination at all levels.

3. The in-service human relations training program of the department should be based

on around democratic practices within the department itself and not mere teaching

and instruction.

4. The working conditions of police personnel, including salaries, should be improved,

and a higher level of training required for employment.

5. The major leadership of the community from the Mayor on down should speak more

often, forcibly, and clearer in support of democratic practice and the great need to

eliminate the problem of police brutality and all other forms of police mistreatment of

Negro citizen.

The NAACP platform outlined the pervasiveness of police violence towards black Americans in

the years following World War II. The demands indirectly reflect the conditions that structured

black life and black communities in that particular historical moment. Notably, what is absent

from this public platform is a specific recognition of how policing embodied gender and race

based prejudices as a response to the discrimination black women can experience (Ritchie,

2017). In order to identify how the NAACP may have acknowledged the gender experience of

207

Arthur Johnson, 44th National Convention, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

208

NAACP Figure, 5630, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

118

black women, I examine the NAACP cases that follow and argue that, to the extent that the

archival records of this prominent national civil rights organization can demonstrate, these cases

embodied the historical reality for black women experiencing both racism and sexism. Though

any explicit mention of the racial, gendered reality of black women did not make it into the

recommendations that came out of the 1953 national convention, I argue that these racial,

gendered realities did manifest in the case files for the black women who sought help from the

NAACP in their particular situations.

This evidence will help illuminate areas not stated in their public platform (explicitly,

racism and sexism). In the following analysis, I consider how the experiences of black women

who came into contact with the NAACP between 1945 and 1965 reveal specific patterns of

violence that the NAACP responded to in its organizational advocacy work. These women were

impacted by a spectrum of issues highlighted by the NAACP platform including rape, homicide,

assault and battery, and accusations of lewd behavior, perversion or public intoxication (see

Figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1. Emerging Patterns in Police Brutality Advocacy Between , 1945-1960

209

Named Individual

Issue

Gender-related Patterns

Joanne Grant

Ruth Tinsley

Dorothy Young

*unnamed black woman

Arrested for loitering, alleged

lewd behavior

• Denial of the autonomy of

body : defending oneself

against, molestation,

physical assault

Beatrice Johnson

Lorraine Battle ( Pregnant)

Mary Washington

Assault/Battery

• Women were beaten or

assaulted as they attempted

to defend their husbands

209

Figure 5.1 represents cases included in this section. They are organized according to how they are described in

the NAACP archives. Cases sharing similar details are grouped together and represent no other connections between

individuals.

119

Dorothy Glenn

Ruby Mischal

Helen White

Jane Phillips

Ruth Loving

Juanita Ford

Mary Bailey

Alice Coleman

Helen White

Adelaide Hudson

Nora Green

Adelaide Hudson

and children.

• Women were beaten or

assaulted under claims of

intoxication and public

intoxication or perversion

Willie Ruthe Williams

Miss Simon

Homicide

• Denial of autonomy of

body resulting in death

Gladys Green

Rape

• Sexual assault as a

mechanism of state

violence

Against Misrepresentations of Black Women

Many of these cases documented the assault experienced by black women at the hands of

police being rationalized under the guise of the victim being intoxicated or having displaced

aggression. These characteristics emerged in case reports and administrative documents

regarding the cases, and accounts from the women themselves of what police told them they

were being charged with. The label of intoxication, or displaced aggression can be tied to the

negative stereotyping used to control representation and public perceptions of black women

outlined in previous chapters (White, 2001). Much like images rooted in slavery, including that

of the “Jezebel” and “Sapphire,” were used to misrepresent black women in reductive ways, in

the years examined for police brutality, the label of intoxication or displaced aggression can be

considered an attempt to distance black women from popularized concepts of morality, ethics,

120

cleanliness and dignity.

210

Women who were labeled intoxicated or aggressive, whether or not

they really were, were cast as other, non-normative, undesirable targets for whom state

violence—police violence in these specific instances—could more likely be justified.

Furthermore, these and other images that sought to control representations of black women

resulted from the sexism and racism characterizing the oppression they experienced.

What’s more prevalent, as these cases reveal, is that the NAACP showed attention to the

real violence this women experienced, in contrast to the claims of police attempting to degrade

their existence. In other words, the NAACP’s documentation of these black women’s

experiences functioned to write into the archive narratives that honored black women’s lived

realities. This acknowledgement implicit in these case files represents a kind of counter-narrative

to the narratives of intoxication, lewdness, and aggression that likely circulate in the police

reports and dominant accounts of black women at these historical moments. In the cases that

follow, I argue that the NAACP’s response in opposition to the discursive mobilization of labels

like “intoxication” and “displaced aggression,” which were used to rationalize some encounters

black women had with police, was impactful. The NAACP response and counter-narrative

constituted an organizational response to a pervasive tradition of social control and

misrepresentations of black women. Specifically, research on the social perception and social

impact of intoxication characterize it as being associated with violent crimes, sexual

adventurousness, automobile accidents, increased aggression and weaken response inhibition.

211

Many of these characteristics align with those imbedded in the images used to degrade the

existence of black women. Specifically, the stereotype of the Jezebel could align with the social

perception of intoxication relating to sexual adventurousness, and weaken response inhibition. In

210

Collins, 2000; hooks, 1981; Wallace; Crenshaw, 1989; Barbara Smith.

211

Steele & Southwick, 1985; Pernanen, 1976; Steffen and Taylor, 1974; Washburne, 1956; Zeichner, 1980

121

addition, the stereotype of the Sapphire could align with the characteristic of increased

aggression because of the anger associated with this stereotype. In the details of the following

cases, the references to intoxication and aggression provide evidence to support the connections

to these controlling images of black women. Furthermore, the NAACP response to these black

women can reflect a response or counter-narrative to the violence they encountered, in the

absence of the attempted distortion from stereotypes or rationale rooted in racism and sexism.

Figure 5.2. The Case of Mrs. Dorothy Glenn.

“ ‘Forgotten Woman’ Learns City Will Pay Doctor Bills.”

In Defense of Black Women Against Claims of Intoxication and Aggression

The case of Dorothy Glenn (see Figure 5.2) appeared in the NAACP primary collection

between the years of 1956 and 1965. The national branch noted that hers was a case emerging

out of Columbus, GA. Dorothy Glenn was described as “a Columbus Ohio woman, arrested for

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alleged intoxication and beaten while in police custody.”

212

In this case, a black woman was

arrested by the Columbus police department under claims of intoxication (see Figure 5.4 in the

appendix). This case introduces a common characteristic from police to describe encounters with

black women. Police often invoked the claim of intoxication in their accounts. The way in which

police mobilized the language of intoxication to rationalize violence against black women can be

considered a form of racial and gender bias because such language is fundamentally rooted in the

use of controlling images to degrade the existence of black women and rationalize violence

against them. The discursive power here lies in a racial gendered regime that polices black

women by categorizing them as undesirable or problematic in a way that justifies state

intervention to “fix” the said problem. If a black woman is categorized as intoxicated, the

dominant discourse seems to say, then that (racial gendered) label offers a pretext that

legitimizes state violence. Calling women intoxicated was not just a rhetorical act; it was a

materially violent one through which black women were being rendered vulnerable to state-

sanctioned violence and death. In addition, the claim of intoxication in the cases of black women

goes beyond racist rationales because it can be tied to the historic negation of the femininity of

black women through the use of these images. Ashlee Davis, Ronald F. Levant, and Shana Pryor

have argued that, historically, black women have been prevented from accessing traditional

conceptualizations of (white) femininity.

213

This has happened through controlling images “used

to exercise power over a subordinate group” rooted in both race and gender bias.

The NAACP’s impact in this case, and others as I will show, reflects that they defended

black women against the claim of intoxication, advocating for their rights against the race and

212

Part 3, Box A243, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

213

Davis, Levant, and Pryor, “Traditional Femininity Versus Strong Black Women Ideologies and Stress among

Black Women.”

123

gender bias attempting to dismiss and marginalize them. In the Glenn case, the NAACP

investigated the claim as well as the physical abuse Ms. Glenn sustained once in police custody.

This specific investigation resulted in public recognition and city payment of Ms. Glenn’s

medical bills sustained from the incident; through the collaborative efforts of the NAACP and

the Community Relations Committee.

Emerging in the same grouping between 1955 and 1965 was the case of Mary Stewart.

As in the Glenn case, the NAACP defended Stewart against the label of intoxication. The case of

Mary Stewart provides an even greater level of detail of the violence condemned by the NAACP,

as law enforcement coated interactions with Black women with negative and stigmatizing

imagery. The Mary Stewart case occurred in Detroit, Michigan, in 1957. Details of the case are

in the below statement from the investigation conducted by the Detroit Branch of the NAACP.

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While operating my automobile on 4-27-1957 about 9:30pm, with two other ladies in the

car (Cecilia Lewis and Mary Washington) I was stopped by a police patrol car while

traveling west on E. Jefferson. Three officers jumped out of the patrol car and one of

them asked if I had a driver’s license, I told him yes. He then asked whose car it was, and

I told him it was mine. He then ordered me to get out of the car. I hesitated long enough

to turn off the switch and apply my emergency brake, but before I could remove my key

from the ignition this same officer snatched me from the car and struck me several times

about the face and shoulders. The two other officers held my arms and held me by the

hair while this officer continued to beat on me with his nightstick. After the beating, I

was then thrown into the back seat of the patrol car and taken to McClellan Street Police

Station. The Desk Sergeant suggested that they take me to a hospital. I was given an

injection and three stitches were put in my lower lip. I was then taken to the women’s

division of the prison at 1300 Beaubien and was held until 4:00pm., Sunday April 28th

on the charge of drinking and reckless driving.

Further analysis of this case by the NAACP notes suspension of charges against the victim in

traffic court. This case provides another example of the characteristic of intoxication being used

as an attempt to justify physically unnecessary and excessive force against black women in

police encounters. The report of the case provides details of Stewart’s encounter. It specifically

214

Part 2, Box B124, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

124

details how the police assaulted her, and recounts how they later charged her with intoxication

and reckless driving. According to NAACP records, the charges of intoxication and reckless

driving were dropped against Ms. Stewart. In this particular case, the NAACP provided Ms.

Stewart the opportunity to speak on her own behalf and the details she provided contrasted those

claims by officers by police. The NAACP, was impactful in this area by providing the space and

opportunity for a black woman to defend herself. While this case relates to Glenn's case because

of the characteristic of intoxication being used to justify violence, the outcome, or the nature of

the impact was different. In the Glenn case, publicity was garnered around the case, and for the

Stewart case, the alleged charges of intoxication were dropped. Both were the result of the

NAACP being involved.

During this period and the years immediately following emerged similar cases in which

the NAACP regional and local branches represented black women against claims of intoxication

and failed deference with regard to assaults by police. Some of these women include Helen

White, Jane Phillips, Juanita Ford, Mary Alice Coleman, and Willie Mae Frazier, who died as a

result of police misconduct.

215

Mrs. Frazier was arrested under claims of intoxication, and

arrested under a “drunk and disorderly conduct charge”. The article states, “Mrs. Frazier was

taken to Dekalb County Jail after service station attendants reported a drunk woman in the

station bathroom. Her husband posted bail 11 hours later and Mrs. Frazier was driven to Grady,

where she died before surgery could be performed.”

215

For more on Mary Alice Coleman, see Figure 4.2 in Appendix. Willie May Frazier is photographed in Figure 5.3.

125

Figure 5.3.

Newspaper headline, “NAACP Asks Quiz In Woman’s Death.”

The NAACP branch investigating the department responsible for her death claims that, “her civil

rights had been violated”, and stated, “she was found in a recumbent position and carried to

prison instead of the hospital.”

216

In this particular case, a black woman was dismissed as being

“drunk and disorderly” a description that connects her to the previous cases presented; but the

fact that this dismissal resulted in her death reveals another point of NAACP advocacy. The

NAACP is noted, as publicly examining the circumstances following Mrs. Frazier’s death. This

case helps present advocacy in contrast to the negative image of intoxication, and further, reveals

that the NAACP provided a narrative of Mrs. Frazier’s death, in contrast to the more degrading

narrative based on intoxication.

The actions of the NAACP in this case, and those that follow reflect a parallel with other

advocacy groups that confront negative narratives of black people in interaction with police as

216

NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

126

well as attempts to criminalize their bodies after death. The NAACP can be considered impactful

in this way, by humanizing black women, and interrupting negative imagery of this group. The

NAACP’s defense of black women resonates, in some ways, with how black mothers in Brazil

have come to the aid of children in what Jaime Amparo Alves has called “a second death.”

217

Specifically, Alves argues that, when black mothers lose their children to police violence, the

police attempt to “kill their children a second time” by criminalizing their bodies after murder in

an attempt to justify the violence. In addition, Alves describes how these mothers must defend

their children even in death, in response to a narrative that denies humanity denied to black

people in both life and death. Similarly, the cases of the NAACP during this period reflect an

engaged mode of advocacy that humanizes black women, recognizing their civil rights in death,

and across all forms of their interaction with police.

In Defense of Black Women Against Sexual Violence

The next set of cases embody attention to another stereotype which was popularized in

the subjective identities of black women in the United States; the image of the hypersexual black

woman or the “Jezebel” stereotype. The issue of sexual assault, and specifically, the negation of

the impact of sexual assault, as I presented earlier, is historically tied to political and social

manipulation of the sexuality of black women. As presented by scholars like bell hooks (1981)

Patricia Hill Collins (2000), Michelle Wallace (1979) and Angela Davis (1981), the stereotype

image of the hypersexual black woman is rooted in slavery and can be tied to the dismissal of the

actual impact and role of sexual violence in their lives.

218

217

Alves, Anti-Black City.

218

hooks, Ain’t I a Woman; Collins, Black Feminist Thought; Wallace, Black Macho and the Myth of the

Superwoman; Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race, and Class (London: The Women’s Press, 1981).

127

Between the years 1955 and 1965, the cases of Dorothy Yung, and Gladys Green

emerged reflecting the NAACP confronting this negative imagery being associated with black

women. These cases can also show how gender may have been considered an issue coupled with

the racism and classism that the NAACP appeared to act in defense of between 1955 and 1965,

following the presentation of the issue of police brutality at the National Convention of 1953.

Both of these cases were arrests investigated by the NAACP, from which the organization found

were sexual assault cases. Dorothy Yung was arrested and charged with physical assault and

juvenile delinquency. Upon further investigation, the NAACP found that Ms. Yung was sexually

assaulted by a white peer and acted out of her own self-defense. The NAACP notes that Ms.

Yung had integrated a school where she was charged with delinquency and the local NAACP

brought her charge against the local court who refused to dismiss the charge. Following this, the

NAACP notes that they brought her case to the supreme court and had the charges dismissed.

219

In the case of Gladys Green, the NAACP described the victim as being “sexually assaulted by

police officers, and arrested for claims of intoxication.

220

The NAACP, investigated these cases

and advocated for Yung and Green against claims of intoxication, in going in contrast, the

organization was able to uncover that they were victims of sexual violence, and defend them

towards that end.

In Defense of Black Women Against Claims of Criminality

The next case reflects both the defense of black women against claims of criminality, as

well as defending incarcerated black women related to the NAACP prison programs.

221

In the

case of Dorothy Rose, the NAACP investigated her case after she was shot fatally in the stomach

219

Part 4, Box A53 filed under Sylvester GA, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

220

Part 2, Box B124, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

221

Part 7, Box 86, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

128

by police who claimed she was “running away after being caught running away from a burglary”

in Birmingham, Mississippi. This case emerged from an annual report on the activities of the

Birmingham Branch of the NAACP. The branch states that “no evidence of her being armed or

dangerous was disclosed. A law violator usually runs from rather than to a police officer making

the shooting in the stomach highly improbable.”

222

The branch provides no further details of

what was accomplished, other than recognizing the homicide as a wrongful death, and bringing

attention to the case at the national level via annual reporting.

In Defense of Black Mothers

In other severe examples, the NAACP became involved in cases involving black women

who were assaulted as they attempted to defend themselves and children in their care. The cases

that follow particularly provide details of the organization coming to the defense of black women

who were pregnant at the time of their assaults. In these cases, the women were pregnant and

often acting in defense of children and elderly. In a 1956 case of in Jackson, Mississippi, police

officers first assaulted and then threatened Beatrice Young and her unborn child if she spoke

about the assault to the NAACP. During this period, the director of the NAACP Washington

Bureau, Clarence Mitchell, brought further attention to this case as noted below.

223

Mrs. Beatrice Young of Jackson, Miss., a housewife and expectant mother was dragged

from her house on Nov. 26th, 1956 when she asked deputy sheriff Andy Hopkins whether

he had a warrant to search her residence. The deputy had gained entrance by threatening

to kick down the doors, he then struck Mrs. Young with a club and beat her with his fist.

While Mrs. Young was in Jail she was hit on the head. When she was released from jail

the following morning Mrs. Young was told by the jailer that he would kill her if she told

of the mistreatment she received while there. Following the attack upon her, Mrs. Young

was hospitalized and suffered a miscarriage. An affidavit describing the episode was

submitted to Rep Emmanuel Cellar, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee by

Clarence Mitchell, director of the NAACP Washington Bureau, who described the attack

222

Birmingham Branch papers, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

223

Part 9, A54, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

129

by the deputy sheriff and the jailor as something ‘as brutal as a Nazi and Soviet Prison

torture.’

The rote documentation of facts and events as they happened in this case fall short of perhaps

capturing the multiple traumas and violences that Beatrice Young—housewife and expectant

mother—experienced. In this case, the resulting miscarriage constituted a secondary act of

violence against Beatrice Young. Young’s unborn child was killed due to police violence.

Beatrice Young’s social location as a black woman—limited to a brief representation as

“housewife and expectant mother” in the archival records of the NAACP—raises the importance

of understanding the racialized, gendered context that structured Beatrice Young’s life generally

and this experience specifically.

The case of Lorraine Battle is a similar one. In 1956, the NAACP noted that Battle was a

black woman who was pregnant at the time of her assault. Police in Jackson, Mississippi,

stopped her son and shortly after they began physically assaulting him. Battle—who was 7

months pregnant at the time—came to the defense of her son, and, in turn, she was physically

assaulted by the officers.

Battle is seven months pregnant at the time a cruiser stopped her son and began beating

him. She ran to the corner without shoes and saw that the officer was hitting her son with

a flashlight. She attempted to enter the car and one of the officers told her to get her black

ass out of the car. One of the officers grabbed her by the collar from behind and hit her in

the face and stomach and knocked her to the ground. One officer called for assistance and

about five other cruisers answered.

Battle “ran to the corner without shoes.” Even in the archival indexing of the violence, it may be

just as important to ask about what is not there in the archival record as what is documented. The

NAACP records do not provide details of the results of Mrs. Battle’s case. However, the

documentation of this case and the details of Mrs. Battle’s case is more evidence of black

women’s distinct racialized, gendered experiences of police violence. While black men were also

130

assaulted, this police violence against black women was gendered in the sense that black

women—who were often also mothers or mothers-to-be—were not the only people vulnerable;

in these cases, police violence against black women could lead to the assaults and death of

children.

The number of cases like that of Beatrice Young and Lorraine Battle, as well as others

noted by this trend of police violence, in the archival records of the NAACP during the period

from 1945 until 1960. Perhaps the decrease of direct cases of investigation of police violence

relates to the rise of other organizations—with the exception of the Congress for Racial Equity

(CORE, founded in 1942), which focused on similar efforts with the rise of the Civil Rights and

Black Power Movements.

224

As noted earlier in this chapter, organizations like the Student

Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, founded 1960), the Southern Christian Leadership

Council (SCLC, founded 1957), the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (founded 1964) and

the Black Panther Party (founded 1966) also emerged during the decades following World War

II. While these cases were less frequent than housing cases and employment advocacy cases (as I

will show in the next chapter), evidence from them still reveal elements of the approach to the

issue, and the attention the organization brought to various black women. The NAACP in

particular shared many direct action efforts with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating

Committee (SNCC) beginning in 1960.

225

While police brutality cases investigated by the NAACP shifted beginning in the 1960s,

recognition of the unique pattern experienced by black women was directly added to National

Literature in the later part of the period of investigation; which was July 1992.

226

This document

224

Organizations, Part 5, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

225

Kruse and Tuck, Fog of War.

226

NAACP Preliminary Report Police Conduct and Community Relations 1992, prepared by Harvard University.

131

it highlights the NAACP work, noting that “ minority women have felt the dual impact of race

and gender bias at the hand of police officers.” This statement is presented related to a case of

harassment by police officers of a minority woman. In the same document prepared by Harvard

University in 1992, the NAACP recognized the broad impact of race and gender based police

violence in poor communities, police conduct, the quality of police investigations and advocate

towards a strategy of mending overall police and community relations towards the end of the

researched period.

These cases highlighted the experiences of black women who brought their cases to the

NAACP. These cases were violent. They demonstrate that mainstream notions of femininity

were violent. They demonstrate that mainstream conceptualizations of femininity were did not

include black women. In fact, even for black mothers, these bodies were brutalized, and their

children were assaulted and, in the case of one unborn child, killed. Prevailing stereotypes of

black women as people who do not feel pain and whose bodies are vulnerable to state violence

further shape the material and discursive realities for black women who occupied a distinct

position at the intersection of racism and sexism in the second half of the twentieth century. In

the next chapter, I analyze the NAACP advocacy on behalf of women who were fighting

employment discrimination in order to extend the discussion and analysis of black women’s lives

as rich and textured sites for grasping intersectionality.

132

CHAPTER SIX

The Fight Against Employment Discrimination

During the second half of the twentieth century, the NAACP’s primary focus in

addressing employment discrimination and inequality was to ensure compliance with anti-

discrimination in with the armed forces and the public and private sectors. The NAACP’s direct

actions in regard to employment during this period fell into two categories. First, the NAACP

examined the administrative barriers that prevented the upward mobility of black Americans.

Next, the NAACP addressed individual complaints of cases across the country from people

facing some form of discrimination from their employers. These activities became more

prevalent in the years following the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the NAACP’s desire to ensure

compliance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

227

The NAACP focused on employment

discrimination as it regarded fair teacher pay, employment integration, affirmative action, gender

discrimination, sexual harassment, and discriminatory hiring practices. The specific campaigns

representing NAACP employment advocacy during this period include:

In this chapter, I analyze the cases in which the NAACP advocated on behalf of black

women—particularly in employment discrimination cases—in order to argue for an

intersectional understanding of these black women’s experiences as both gendered and

racialized. First, I discuss the reality of racial discrimination in employment and labor for black

Americans in the period from 1945 to 1995 to understand the larger, more general reality of

employment for black Americans. Next, I discuss how black women can experience employment

discrimination in a distinct way due to their gendered experiences. Then, I analyze cases of

employment discrimination against black women and how the NAACP responded to the realities

227

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 addressed discrimination in employment on the bases of sex, race,

religion, color and nation of origin.

133

present in their cases. The purpose of this chapter is to examine how black women filing cases of

employment discrimination experienced discrimination related to their experiences with racism

and sexism. Overall, I argue here that employment is yet another site of analysis and critique

through which we might (1) better understand the distinct ways in which black women inhabited

the nexus of race, class, and gender; and (2) understand how the NAACP worked alongside

black women constituents to advocate for their employment rights.

Racial Discrimination in Employment After World War II

Historically, black Americans have suffered labor exploitation in the United States.

Employment discrimination is rooted in labor exploitation spanning earlier than emancipation.

228

While the point of this discussion is the way racial discrimination shaped Black Americans

experiences with employment between 1945 and 1995, understanding the role of slavery and Jim

Crow is fundamental to understand their disadvantage. The discrimination in this era is

emphasized by significant landmark policy changes like Executive Order 9981 (1948), which

desegregated the armed forces; Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited

employment discrimination on the basis of race, sex, and other categories; and Executive Order

11246 (1965), which established non-discrimination hiring practices in government. These

policies were a response to economic displacement rooted in slavery and Jim Crow, and they

came about as a result of persistent advocacy for fair employment during and after World War II

because of such discriminatory conditions. In the following pages, there is a discussion of

policies in response to slavery and the patterns of Jim Crow that followed it.

229

228

Foner, Organized Labor and the Black Worker, 1619–1981; Weaver, Negro Labor, a National Problem;

Katznelson, When Affirmative Action Was White.

229

Foner, Organized Labor and the Black Worker; Weaver, Negro Labor, a National Problem.

134

The landscape of employment immediately following World War II is rooted in the

relegation of Black Americans to the sector of unskilled labor.

230

This marginalization is tied to

the nature of enslaved black labor before emancipation, as well as the discriminatory color caste

inherited from the system. In his book Capitalism and Slavery, Eric Williams writes in reference

to the foundation of black labor in the United States that “the reason was economic, not racial; it

had to do not with the color of the laborer, but the cheapness of the labor...Negro slavery was

eminently superior.”

231

The use of enslaved blacks to satisfy the agricultural labor demand

outlined by Williams, also gave rise to a racial caste system in the United States to rationalize the

dehumanizing conditions and exploit free labor as also noted by Williams, “The features of the

man, his hair, his color, and dentifrice, his ‘subhuman’ characteristics so widely pleaded were

only later rationalizations to justify a simple economic fact: that the colonies needed labor and

resorted to Negro labor because it was the cheapest and best.”

232

This racial caste system,

coupled with the foundation of relegation to agricultural unskilled labor, gave rise to a pattern of

economic displacement. This connection is outlined in Juan Perea’s “The Echoes of Slavery:

Recognizing the Racist Origins of the Agricultural and Domestic Worker Exclusion from the

National Labor Relations Act” in specific reference to the southern economy in the United

States.

233

Since the time of slavery and up into the New Deal, plantation agriculture had been the

most important feature of the southern economy and society. Just as the antebellum

southern plantation system depended on the forced labor of black slaves, so the

postbellum southern agriculture depended on exploitation and subordination of black

labor. The formal abolition of slavery in the Constitution made little difference.

230

Weaver, Negro Labor: A National Problem.

231

Williams, Capitalism and Slavery.

232

Williams, Capitalism and Slavery p. 20

233

Perea, “The Echoes of Slavery: Recognizing the Racist Origins of the Agricultural and Domestic Worker

Exclusion from the National Labor Relations Act”; Hill, “Racial Inequality in Employment: The Patterns of

Discrimination.”

135

Agriculture, and the exploitation of black labor to support it, remained particularly and

uniquely important to the South during the New Deal Era.

234

Perea also discusses this displacement in connection to the New Deal period, and the systemic

policies that emerged to solidify employment marginalization according to race. Perea argues

that Congress, “

235

Accommodated and preserved this racism through systemic and intentional

exclusion of blacks from all the major enactments of the New Deal (p. 104).” The economic acts

of the New Deal period enabled patterns of racial discrimination preventing Black Americans

from receiving fair wages and excluding agricultural and domestic workers-- who were

disproportionately black-- from access to unemployment insurance.

236

During World War II, this pattern of marginalization emerged as defense and trade or

skill based jobs expanded. Racism relegated Blacks to unskilled labor created limited

opportunities for Black Americans, as outlined by Robert Weaver in Negro Labor: A National

Problem. In this text, Weaver presents the disadvantage produced from exploitative slave labor,

in his examination of barriers for black Americans to enter trade jobs in the twentieth century.

The older skills which the Negro carpenter knew were supplanted by new methods

employed in large scale construction. At the same time, plumbing, steamfitting, and

electrical work became essential in many types of building. The Negro Slave was never

taught these trades; the free Negro rarely had a chance to learn them. Labor unions placed

their emphasis upon organizing workers who were in large scale construction. The black

artisan, despite his early start in home construction, knew only the skills of small scale

building and could maintain a favorable competitive position only in those of his

inherited skills which carried over into the large scale building , such as the skills of the

trowel trades in which the techniques remained substantially unchanged...this meant a

continued displacement of Negro carpenters and monopoly of the mechanical building

trades by white workers who were newcomers into the older building trades which the

Negro once dominated in the south.

237

234

Perea, “The Echoes of Slavery,” 100–101 2011.

235

The National Industrial Recovery Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, Social Security Act, The Fair Labor

Standards Act; Perea, “The Echoes of Slavery.”

236

Perea, “The Echoes of Slavery.”

237

Robert Weaver, “Negro Labor: A National Problem.” 141

136

Black Americans were barred from getting access to training programs and were discriminated

against in favor of the white labor force. This cycle is outlined by Phillip Foner in his discussion

of the employment industry immediately following World War II. Specifically, Foner writes,

“many labor unions in the defense industries would not admit Negroes. Management that had

closed shop agreements with such unions would turn down black applicants for being non-union.

Training schools would not accept Negro candidates either because they could not join labor

unions or because they had no job offers.”

238

Despite these practices relegating many Black

Americans to unskilled positions, many were able to attain trade training but were still restricted

through persistently racist practices restricting them to agricultural and domestic positions, “

there was a serious waste of available Negro manpower and woman power. Much of it was due

to underemployment. The limited number of Negro men who had been admitted to defense

training courses were in janitorial or unskilled jobs. Negroes with mechanical experiences or

aptitudes were driving delivery trucks or waiting tables or operating elevators. To an even

greater extent, colored women were concentrated in non-essential service jobs.”

239

This type of discrimination and marginalization occurred outside of skill or trade related

employment as well. Specific patterns of discrimination against teachers was a formidable

barrier and the NAACP’s employment advocacy efforts addressed these issues. In southern

states, the “pressure from the NAACP and the courts did bring important accommodations, but

[there was] significant, and still unexamined, ways the white south chose to resist. The most

durable resistance to the challenges posed by the NAACP legal campaign came not in the courts

or in politics, but within educational institutions.”

240

The NAACP worked to address the 40%

238

Foner, Organized Labor and the Black Worker. 239

239

Weaver, Negro Labor: A National Problem p.141

240

Baker, “Testing Equality.” 49

137

wage gap between white and black teachers that was in most cases, 80% percent the result of

racial discrimination.

241

The NAACP litigation towards equalizing teacher pay was met with

southern backlash, and responses that sought to rationalize inequality based on alleged black

ineptitude; reminiscent of the patterns before it sought to rationalize black relegation to

oppressive labor. Most of these cases were to fight discrimination claims against National

Teacher Exam (NTE) standardized tests proposed by Columbia professor, Ben Woods.

242

The NTE offered a way out of the dilemmas posed by the salary campaign because it

provided an ostensibly scientific and objective basis for claims that African American

teachers were inferior to whites. The educational attainment of African American

teachers increased significantly during the 1940s. As a result, southern school officials

worried that if they created a single salary schedule for whites and blacks, which based

pay on educational qualifications and teaching experience, as the NAACP urged, the

salaries of black teachers might soon exceed those of whites. Southern educational

leaders claimed that black teachers should be paid lower salaries because their training

was inferior, but this contention made whites vulnerable to NAACP demands for

educational equalization and desegregation. The NTE allowed educational authorities to

avoid these problems. By judging white and black teachers against the same test norm

and maintaining savage inequalities in education, white school officials ensured that most

African Americans would earn lower salaries than whites. Rather than providing what

Wood called an ‘impartial: means of determining pay, the NTE dressed up discrimination

in a more legally defensible form and became an important means through which it was

perpetuated.

243

This system of using NTE to rationalize fair pay for Black teachers reflects similarities in the

displacement of black that occurred in trade jobs. Using seemingly objective measures (e.g.,

Teacher Exams, Training Schools, Trade Unions) to critique the employability of black

Americans was rooted in racial bias and systemic discrimination reminiscent of the racist

rationale behind justifications for slavery and Jim Crow.

244

The reality of marginalization

according to race in employment formed the precursor for federal legislation in the 1960s

241

Baker, “Testing Equality.”

242

Baker, 1995, 55-56.

243

Baker, 1995, 55-56.

244

Weaver ,1946; Baker, 1995

138

addressing private and public employment discrimination. A number of different policies sought

to eliminate race-based discrimination in various sectors. Executive Order 9981 (1948) under

President Truman sought to eliminate discrimination on the basis of color in the United States

Armed Forces. Eventually, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Executive Order

11246 (1965) sought to eliminate employment discrimination in the public and private sectors.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibited employment discrimination

on the basis of categories including race and sex, contained two provisions that greatly shaped

the activism efforts of the NAACP in the latter part of the 20th century. Specifically, Title VII

contained two provisions that addressed the patterns of discrimination faced by Black Americans

in the years prior to and immediately following World War II. The Act “prohibited

discrimination by private employers, labor organizations, and employment agencies.”

245

The first

part of Title VII “prohibits discriminatory restrictions limiting access of minorities to firms and

occupation” and the second part “declares illegal, pay differences based upon race.”

246

While the

NAACP’s advocacy in the area of employment preceded the passage of Title VII, their efforts

also aligned with ensuring compliance with both provisions of the law. Specifically, they fought

and won federal suits before and after the law, and encouraged the government to aggressively

enforce the law.

247

In many employment discrimination cases emerging after Title VII in 1965,

the NAACP directly referenced how employers violated enforcement of the act in defense cases

of black Americans. Title VII provided the NAACP with additional federal support in holding

employers accountable for discriminatory patterns, such as a 1973 case emerging from NAACP

National Headquarters in 1973 stating, “defendants have denied employment, and continue to

245

Pedriana and Stryker, “The Strength of a Weak Agency.” 709-710

246

Pedriana and Stryker p. 709

247

Victor Perlo, Economics of Racism USA: Roots of Black Inequality (New York: International Publishers, 1975).

139

deny employment to black applicants because of their race” and “defendants have discriminated,

and continue to discriminate against black employees and black applicants for employment

because of their race in direct violation of Title VII.”

248

The NAACP enforcement of Title VII came with a necessary criticism of the Equal

Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) which was established shortly after the law. As

noted by the New York Times in 1966, “attempts to end employment discrimination are being

hampered by inadequate enforcement powers, meager budgets, and weak administrations.”

249

The Commission initially struggled to gain the necessary administrative, financial, and judicial

support necessary to ensure compliance with Title VII. The NAACP sought to bring further

attention to these federal shortcomings, so they tested the capacity of the EEOC to address

discrimination complaints. The necessary criticism that shaped NAACP employment advocacy

after 1965 is outlined by Nicholas Pedriana and Robin Stryker in “The Strength of A Weak

Agency.” As Pedriana and Stryker write,

Some civil rights groups decided to swamp the EEOC with complaints to illustrate the

agency’s weakness. In conjunction with the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), the NAACP

devised a ‘stunt; to file mass complaints soon after Title VII became effective. Jack

Greenberg, director of the LDF told The Wall Street Journal ‘the best way to get it [ Title

VII] amended is to show it doesn't work. Through summer and fall 1965 the NAACP and

LDF hit the EEOC with complaints in an ‘ unrelenting drive to enforce compliance with

Title Vii’ . By mid-December they had filed nearly one-third of the 2000 complaints

received. By the end of its first fiscal year, the EEOC had gotten 8800 complaints but a

budget projected to handle 2000 ...the NAACP and LDF mobilized a mass complaint

generating campaign that put enormous pressure on an infant agency to aggressively

enforce the law.

250

The pattern of race-based employment discrimination proceeding from World War II has been

characterized by patterns of discrimination that attempt to rationalize black relegation to

248

NAACP v. Prince George County, Group 5, Box 226, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

249

New York Times, May 16, 1966, p. A18

250

Pedriana and Stryker, “The Strength of a Weak Agency: Enforcement of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act

and the Expansion of State Capacity, 1965–1971,” 725.

140

unskilled labor, while systemic racism simultaneously maintains their displacement. The racial

history outlined here also provides the broader context for understanding the nature of the

NAACP’s employment advocacy efforts, and part of the reality faced by black women during the

period. In order to understand black women’s experiences, it is important to understand within

this racialized context, black women experienced discrimination distinct from their male

counterparts. For black women, theirs were racialized, gendered experiences. The next part of

this chapter explores the gendered reality of black women in employment.

At the Intersection of Race and Gender: The Experiences of Black Woman in Labor After

1945

The relationship between black women and labor exploitation in the United States is rooted in

discrimination that questions their employability and restricted them to the domestic sector and

labor exploitation. Reducing black women to domestic service is also reminiscent of earlier

patterns that relegated the general black population to exploitative agricultural and other forms of

unskilled labor. It is distinct as I will explain, because it can be connected to the use of stereotype

images propagated of black women specifically. I seek to examine black women’s employment

discrimination experience. This will create a more complete worker experience. Wooten states,

“men and women are racialized and gendered, and it is rarely, if ever, the case that one of these

characteristics is salient while the other is unimportant. Rather both race and gender coalesce to

shape the image of the worker”.

251

In order to accomplish the latter, the next several pages

present two major themes associated with the employment of black women following World

War II. First, I discuss the historic restriction of black women specifically to domestic labor and

251

Wooten, 2012.

141

how it resulted in a pattern of discrimination. And second, I discuss how the racial and gender

based dehumanization of black women is different from white women’s labor and experiences.

The gendered and racialized employment experiences of black women following World

War II can be tied to stereotype images such as that of the mammy, used to exploit their labor

during and immediately following slavery. Carolyn West characterizes the mammy image as

“one of the most pervasive images of black women, originated during slavery. Her primary role

was domestic service characterized by long hours of work with little or no financial

compensation.”

252

Patricia Hill Collins also provides some connection to the way labor

exploitation of black women depended on the existence of the mammy image. Collins argues it

was “created to justify the economic exploitation of house slaves and sustained to explain Black

women’s long standing restriction to domestic service.”.

253

Scholar Kimberly Wallace-Sanders

provides a vivid description of the image of mammy and helps establish an understanding of the

stereotypes related to degradation of black women in the domestic sector. The below excerpt is

from Wallace-Sanders’ text, Mammy.

First as a slave, then as a free woman, the mammy is largely associated with the care of

white children or depicted with noticeable attachment to white children. Her

unprecedented devotion to her white family reflects her racial inferiority. Mammy is

often both her title and the only name she has ever been given. She may also be a cook or

personal maid to her mistress, a classic southern belle, whom she infantilizes. Her clothes

are typical of a domestic: headscarf and apron, but she is especially attracted to brightly

colored, elaborately tied scarves. Mammy speaks the ungrammatical ‘plantation dialect’

made famous in the 1890s by popular white southern authors like Joel chandler Harris

and by subsequent minstrel shows. Her own children are usually dirty and ill mannered,

yet they serve as suitable playmates for her white charges.

254

Stereotypical images, like that of the mammy, that tie black women to domestic servitude and

are rooted in slavery can be considered a foundation for understanding patterns of discrimination

252

West, “Mammy, Sapphire, and Jezebel,” 459.

253

Collins, Black Feminist Thought, 80.

254

Wallace-Sanders, Mammy, 6.

142

emerging since emancipation. Historically, the image of the black woman has been manipulated

to satisfy certain economic expectations resulting in actual degradation in employment

experiences for the population. Enobong Branch presents this in her broad description of the

actual reality of undervaluing the employability of black women, “they consistently held jobs

that marked the bottom rung of the employment ladder. Employers almost universally saw black

women as a last resort; this attitude ensured that they were perpetually underemployed or

unemployed.”

255

Scholar Trudier Harris, in the text, “From Mammies to Militants,” specifies this

reality stating, “its integral place in black American experience suggests that the role or image of

the black woman as a domestic is the basic historical conception from which other images and

stereotypes have grown. Dependency on service pans, the name for leftover food domestic

workers were given to take home to their families, foreshadows dependency on welfare, for

certainly that paternalistic phenomenon influenced social expectations. Sexual exploitation of the

maid by the employers husband, which is a direct extension of slavery perhaps contributed its

share to the stereotyped images of the black woman as hot mamma or unwed mother.”

256

The sexist and racist stereotypes connecting black women to the domestic sector and

undervalued work is especially detrimental considering that black women in domestic work

began to decrease at the start of World War II.

257

Black women were barred from opportunities

despite growing educational attainment in the broadening employment sector while stereotypes

and public images of them continued to put them behind white men and women and black men.

Specifically, they were marginalized because of social perceptions. Historian Karen Anderson

255

Branch, Opportunity Denied, 8.

256

Harris, “From Mammies to Militants.”

257

Branch, Opportunity Denied.

143

(1982) argues this in the excerpt below from “Last Hired, First Fired: Black Women Workers

during World War II.

258

One of the most important and obdurate of the industries that fought the employment of

black women during the war was the auto industry. Led by the negative example of the

Ford Motor Company, which refused to hire nonwhite women except in token numbers,

the auto companies persisted in rejecting trained black female applicants or in limiting

their employment to a few work categories until very late in the war. When referred to

the automakers by the United States Employment Services in response to calls for women

workers, black women found that the white women accompanying them would be hired

immediately while they would be told to await a later call, a call that would never come.

When Samella Banks, along with five white women, applied to the Cadillac Motor

Company in November 1942, she was told that there might be a janitress opening in a

day or two while they were hired as welder trainees. As a result, much of the expansion

of the female labor force in industrial work occurred before economic or political

pressures necessitated the hiring of black women.

As Anderson notes, the marginalization of black women in the women's labor market

forerunning federal antidiscrimination policies persisted well into World War II and into the

1960s when enforcement of those policies became more aggressive. Historian Laurie B. Green

(2006) focuses on the labor marginalization black women experienced into the World War II

period, through a case study of Altha Sims. Sims experienced discrimination within the defense

industry of World War II despite the existence of Executive Order 8802, that prohibited racial

discrimination in the Armed Forces. Sims was specifically told when attempting to apply for

work in defense that “there is not defense work for Negro women.”

259

In the various letters Sims

sent to President Roosevelt, she outlined how black women during the war experienced

discrimination that sought to limit them to the domestic image tied to slavery.

260

Green notes:

As Altha Sim’s letters show, black women’s exclusion from industrial defense jobs

associated with popular images of ‘war mothers’ and ‘Rosie the Riveters’ became a focal

point for popular dissent during the war. Many women tenaciously strived to locate jobs

outside private household work. Others already labored within workplaces that

represented the public equivalents to domestic work, especially the city’s laundry and dry

258

Anderson, 1982, p. 85.

259

Green, “ ‘Where Would the Negro Women Apply for Work?’ 96”

260

Green, “ ‘Where Would the Negro Women Apply for Work,’ ” 97.

144

cleaning facilities, where African American women toiled in large numbers before the

war. There, women battled racialized gradations of work that distinguished black and

white women.

261

The authors referenced in the latter discussion also help propose distinctions within the women’s

labor force between black and white women. While the group itself experienced discrimination

in favor of a male dominant industry, employment for black women looked different from white

women because their racial identity pushed them into the periphery of this issue.

262

Black women

experienced a form of discrimination related to historically dehumanizing distinctions made

between themselves and white women. Specifically, black women have been removed from

concepts of femininity, and general notions of what was classified as womanhood in the

twentieth century.

263

Scholars Patricia Hill Collins and bell hooks establish how black women

have been distanced from traditional notions of (white) femininity.

In Black Feminist Thought, Collins argues that stereotypes of black women emerged, in

part, as a way to distance them from “traditional” notions of femininity. Moreover, she states,

“according to the cult of true womanhood that accompanied the traditional family ideal, ‘true’

women possessed four cardinal virtues: piety, purity submissiveness and domesticity. Propertied

white women and those of the emerging middle class were encouraged to aspire to these virtues.

African American women encountered a different set of controlling images,” used to degrade

and repress their social identities. She goes on to discuss several controlling images used to

distance black women from the notion of true womanhood. These include the images of the

mammy, matriarch, welfare mother and jezebel, which are all stereotypes that distort black

261

Green, “Where Would the Negro Women Apply for Work” 97

262

Branch, Opportunity Denied.

263

Wallace-Sanders, “Southern Memory, Southern Monuments, and the Subversive Black Mammy”; Collins, Black

Feminist Thought; hooks, Ain’t I a Woman.

145

women’s relationship to motherhood and sexuality.

264

Collins positions the image of the mammy

as, “juxtaposed against images of white women, the mammy image as the Other symbolizes the

oppositional difference of mind/body/culture/nature thought to distinguish black women from

everyone else...a surrogate mother in blackface whose historical devotion to her white

family...completely committed to her job.

265

The welfare mother is a stereotype Collins describes

as an attempt to distort the image of the black woman as a mother and control her fertility

(Collins,2000). The welfare mother stereotype has been used to dehumanize black women as

“lazy” and “bad mothers” who do not represent the values propped up by the white patriarchal

society. The final image discussed by Collins is the jezebel. The Jezebel stereotype, the most

sexually violent of these stereotypes, is used as another mechanism of white patriarchal society

proposing that black women lack femininity, morality and sexual propriety towards an end of

rationalizing widespread sexual assaults on black women during slavery and well after

emancipation.

hooks helps establish the connection these images, rooted in slavery, have to the lives of

black women well into the twentieth century. Her contribution in, Ain’t I a Woman provides

some insight into how these images shape public perceptions of women and are used to distance

them from white women. Again, it is necessary to understand how stereotype definitions of black

women impact how issues are addressed for them within the women's labor market. hooks

describes that black women have been perpetually embedded in the American psyche as

undervalued and are often placed behind the needs of white women and black men in a racist and

patriarchal society. Furthermore, she claims white feminist sociologists ignore the unique needs

264

Wallace-Sanders, “Southern Memory, Southern Monuments, and the Subversive Black Mammy”; Collins, Black

Feminist Thought; hooks, Ain’t I a Woman.

265

Collins, Black Feminist Thought, 81.

146

of black women as marginalized by racism within social advocacy for women's rights (Hooks

1981).

The basis of what is discussed by both hooks and Collins is a worker reality that does not

recognize that black women are a part of the black labor market and the women's labor market

simultaneously. The pattern of dehumanization results in limited access with racial

discrimination, as well as a denial of the unique needs of women within the women’s labor

market. This inability to see black women is particularly noted by historian Evelyn Nakano

Glenn, in her description of white employers of domestic workers not recognizing the

responsibilities black women as mothers during the 1960s.

White women were also not noted for asking about childcare arrangements. All whites,

said one black woman, ‘assume you have a mother, or an older daughter to keep your

child, so it’s alright to leave your kids.’ Stories of white employers not believing the

children of domestics were sick but hearing this as an excuse not to work was also

common. Stories, too, of white women who did not inquire of a domestic family even

when that domestic went on extended trips with the family were not uncommon. And

work on Christmas morning and other holidays for black mothers was not considered by

white employers as unfair. Indeed, work these days was seen as particularly important to

the job.

266

Being removed from notions of womanhood, relates to a black woman’s worker identity because

it can also put her at risk of not being offered the same protections associated with womanhood

between 1945-1995 in an already patriarchal society (e.g., pregnancy, being responsible for

children, sexual harassment in the workplace; sexual harassment particularly relates to the

historical disregard for black women perpetually being victims of sexual assault; rationalized

through the stereotype of the Jezebel). In the next pages, I discuss how the actions of the

NAACP responded to this racist and sexist marginalization. This analysis has informed the

reality outlined in the previous pages. These issues include restriction to domestic service,

266

Glenn, “From Servitude to Service Work,” 18.

147

discrimination in the defense industries, discrimination against black pregnant women, and

sexual harassment.

NAACP Employment Cases

Employment discrimination appeared as an important issue area during the period

researched for this dissertation. A possible reason for the prominence of this issue can be

associated both with the broad spectrum of discrimination in the area of employment, as well as

the antidiscrimination policies passed during the period. As stated in the earlier parts of this

chapter the following policies are associated with the period: Executive Order 9981 (1948),

which desegregated the Armed Forces; Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which

prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin; and

Executive Order 11246 (1965), which established non-discrimination practices in hiring for

government positions. In addition, the NAACP worked in the early years of the EEOC

(established in 1965) to expand its initial capacity towards addressing employment

discrimination. The latter was discussed in the earlier section of this chapter. The majority of the

cases presented in the following pages occurred before 1980. These cases are not exhaustive.

They were selected because they fit the minimum search criteria of black and female service

recipients in NAACP archives. The decline in these cases occurred during the same period of

President Jimmy Carter’s proposal to consolidate enforcement of fair employment laws to the

power of the EEOC. Carter signed this legislation in 1978 as the Civil Service Reform Act of

1978.

267

Considering the NAACP focus during the period was enforcement of federal

antidiscrimination laws, this move may have impacted them. The NAACP had public complaints

267

Charles M. Lamb, “Equal Employment Opportunity and the Carter Administration: An Analysis of

Reorganization Options,” Policy Studies Journal 8, no. 3 (December 1979): 377–83.

148

about this executive move. In 1978, comments from the Washington Bureau of the NAACP were

published in an issue of Jet magazine.

It appears that there is an unholy effort on the part of forces within the U.S. Civil Service

Commission and some staff members of the Senate Committee on Governmental affairs

to undermine the portion of your plan dealing with the transfer of federal civil rights

enforcement from the Civil Service Commission to the Equal Employment Opportunity

Commission…under the Carter administration’s proposal, only three federal agencies

would have exclusive equal employment opportunity responsibilities under Title VII of

the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Over 15 million and 400 jobs positions are affected by the

plan proposed by the White House.

268

The employment cases discussed in this chapter are part of a collection of 45 employment cases

identified from the initial research period following World War II. The NAACP addressed

patterns of discrimination against black women in the armed forces as well as the public and

private workforce sectors. The experiences of these black women often resulted in them being

terminated from employment, denied promotion, denied access, and fair treatment on the job.

The most offensive of these cases related to sexual manipulation, labor exploitation, restriction to

the area of domestic service and degrading verbal abuse, which are discussed in detail in the

following chapter. Table 6.1 shows the employment discrimination cases filed with the NAACP.

The table below also shows the year, and the nature of the case as recorded in the NAACP

archives. The location of the files in the archives can be found in the appendices.

Figure 6.1 Black Women’s Employment Discrimination Cases

Name

Year(s) on

File

Incident

Mrs. Lester Jackson

1947

Discrimination at State Employment Agency

268

Jet magazine, March 1978, p. 8.

149

Mary Wright

1947

Peonage; Domestic

Gladys Fermon

1953

Discrimination in Defense Industries, Denied

Promotion

Gladys Blackman, Naomi

White

1944-1948

Verbal Abuse in Defense Industry

Leslie Perry

1944-1948

Discrimination in Defense Industries, Denied

Privileges

Unnamed Black Female

Teacher

1955

Wage discrimination

Katherine Thompson

1955

Denied employment to teach white pupils

Irene Morgan

1960

Wage discrimination

Catherine Davis and Pearline

Newson

1962

Terminated for using sick leave

Wilma Hedrick

1962

Fired from Domestic

Ola Mae Lacy, Ida W. Boyd,

Edythe Franks

1956-1965

Employment Discrimination

Annie Rankin

1965

Discrimination in hiring nurse practitioner

Betty Parker

1968-1969

Denied Contract Renewal

Doris Holmes

1969

Terminated from Hospital

Vernetta Harrison

1969

Harassment resulting in termination

Bertha Aycock

1969

Terminated

150

Deborah Renwick

Ida Banks

Gloria Whitaker

1969

Discrimination against black women in clerical

positons, employment accessibility

Patricia B Allen

1972

Denied employment as secretary despite

education and experience

Ardelia C. Harvey

Carolyn King

Annie D. Harvey

1972

Employment Discrimination in job

accessibility

Linda Cruz

1973

Harassment and Intimidation

Catherine Balagune

1972--1973

Harassment and Unfair Treatment

Shirley Glenn

1972-1973

Harassment and Discrimination on Job

Lorraine Hawthorne

1979

Harassment and Intimidation resulting in

termination

Irene Lo Re, Jacqueline

Edwards, Jenny Green Lee

1977

Sex and Race based Class action suit NAACP v.

NY Clearing House Association

Diane Gabrielle

1976

Fired for pregnancy

Sandra Williams

Carolyn Morrison

1976

Fired for pregnancy

Dorothy Dowel

1976

Sexual harassment

Jeanie Temple

1979

Discrimination in Promotion

151

Glennie McKnight

Emogene Stevenson

Alfreda B Fannings

Gloria B. Davis

Susan Smith

Hortentia D. Harrist

Flodella MItchell

Lillie Brown

1979-1980

Discrimination in Employment

The issues represented in this table reflect the NAACP’s attention to a spectrum of issues

black women faced. Unlike the other areas of findings in this dissertation (police brutality and

housing), employment cases appeared through most of the period between 1947 and 1980 and

less frequently in the other years of the period of inquiry, 1945 to 1995. This drop off can

possible be explained by the changes in federal policy around unemployment advocacy. The

chart details the time range for issues of employment related discrimination. As stated earlier, the

organization covered issues for black women in public and private industries including the armed

forces. Of the 45 total cases, 10 cases document on site harassment; 2 cases document women

losing positions related to pregnancy; 29 cases were black women who experienced job

discrimination with regard to accessibility; 11 were cases of termination; 3 cases concerned

wage-related discrimination; and 1 case involved three women listed in a sex, race and class-

based lawsuit against the New York Clearing House in 1977.

269

Before going into details

provided from particular cases, it is important to consider what this breakdown can support about

the NAACP defending black women.

269

For the court decision, see NAACP v. New York Clearing House Association, 431 F. Supp. 405 (SDNY 1977).

152

The majority of the cases in this table involve black women who were denied access to

employment. Accessibility includes claims of discrimination because of race or being denied

promotion or contract renewal. Accessibility relates more to the general pattern of race based

discrimination experienced by black Americans during the period as highlighted in earlier parts

of the chapter. The claims of termination because of racial discrimination also relates to this

general reality, because of the tendency for employers to favor white applicants ( highlighted in

previous pages). The cases reflecting the general race based pattern of discrimination can also

represent that in the NAACP’s work there was a larger focus on the racial worker identity of

black women; a consequence of the dominance of racial advocacy. However, in examining

details of other cases, it becomes clearer that in the NAACP’s work, there was a recognition of

the racial and gender worker identities of black women, and the impact on them in the labor

market.

The harassment cases of black women and job termination due to pregnancy were those

the NAACP investigated that show the entire worker identity of black women. In 1976, the

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Branch of the NAACP pursued a case on behalf of Diane Gabriel,

Sandra Williams and Carolyn Morrison against David Wilson of the City National Bank in

Charlotte, NC.

270

These women claimed that they were barred from being employed in previous

positions after taking agreed upon maternity leave. The manager at the City National Bank is

documented by investigators of the NAACP as claiming their positions had been filled as they

inquired about start dates at the end of their individual maternity leaves. The discrimination these

women experienced was related directly to their identities as black women; it was both racialized

and gendered. It is gender-related because their termination was tied to their maternity leave after

270

NAACP v. City National Bank, Class Action Suits, Box 1715, Part 5, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress

Washington, DC.

153

giving birth, a right thwarted because of the historical denial of black women’s womanhood.

Details from cases of the NAACP involving black women in the defense industries, shows

similar race and gender discrimination and a response to their complex worker identities.

Specifically, I will examine cases of black women, in women’s labor market of the defense

industries.

Black women in the defense industry, documented in the NAACP archives, experienced

discrimination in the women’s labor market because of their racial identities. Specifically, black

women were degraded verbally, and prevented from receiving the same privileges extended to

white women. The verbal degradation as I will examine, relates to common stereotypes

propagated about black women specifically. Here, I refer to the cases of Gladys Blackman,

Naomi White, Leslie Perry, and Gladys Fermon. Gladys Blackman and Naomi White were black

women employed in the U.S. Navy. According to the NAACP records, experienced verbally

degrading language in reference to black women specifically. According to the NAACP record,

these women were associated with descriptions such as, “sexually perverted, excess drunkenness,

drug use, vile, and having filthy language.” The NAACP brought a case against the Women's

Auxiliary Corps, in defense of these women, with a goal of bringing charges against the division

violating Executive Order 9981 that sought to prevent discrimination in the armed forces. The

NAACP accused the division of violating the order that outlawed discrimination in the armed

services. The NAACP maintaining specific details of the discrimination, and what those details

represent, reflects an attention to the discrimination that takes shape for black women

particularly. Like the police brutality cases, the descriptions give a glimpse into how whites

viewed black women. Black women were described in both cases as drunk and sexually

perverse. These descriptions speak to views of black women circulated in society.

154

In the case of Leslie Perry, the NAACP pursued an investigation into the U.S. Marine

Corps from statements from Perry that the Marine Corps was, “limited in extending privileges to

black women.” From this investigation the NAACP proceeded to collect data on the number of

black women employed in the U.S. Marine Corps over time, arguing that percent increase of

black women in the Marine Corps is not reflected in the percent change of privileges extended to

black women in particular.

271

Claims from Perry led to a broader investigation and during the

same period the case of Gladys Fermon was brought to attention because of similar

circumstances. Gladys Fermon alleged that, according to white superior officers, she was not

given a promotion because she made “false and malicious charges against her superior.” The

NAACP investigated Fermon’s case and uncovered a pattern of behavior in the Auxiliary Corps,

“denying rightful promotion to Negro Women.”

272

Fermon approached the National Branch

claiming that her superior within the Women’s Auxiliary Corps of the U.S. Military denied her

promotion. The NAACP’s personnel investigated this claim, and the below narrative provides

an account of what the organization identified for Fermon.

[Fermon was] Removed from civil service on the charge that she made false and

malicious charges against her superior. Investigation by the NAACP found that this claim

was false. NAACP investigators found that her superior made charges against her

because he did not want to see a Negro Woman Promoted.

273

The NAACP investigated the case and identified that Fermon was denied promotion

explicitly because her superior did not want to see a black woman promoted. Fermon’s case,

provides an excellent example of the broader investigation the NAACP did during the same

period into the U.S. Military for discrimination against black women, as noted from the Perry

case. The cases presented so far have revealed two things about the organization recognizing the

271

NAACP Papers, Part 1, Box 29, Folder 27, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

272

NAACP Papers, Part 1, Box 29, Folder 27, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

273

LDF 1953, Box 29, Folder 7, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

155

worker identities of black women. First the NAACP’s actions shows recognition of what black

women experienced related to the existence of stereotypes. And the actions also reveal

recognition of the broader marginalization they experienced in the women’s labor market. The

next set of cases, show the NAACP’s attention to how black women were exploited in the area of

domestic service.

The next set of cases highlights the experiences of black women in the domestic service

sector. Discussing the details of these cases is important because it shows how the NAACP

addressed the lives of black women in relation to the domestic service sector. Considering

domestic service is important, because as discussed earlier, it’s history is rooted in racism and

gendered exploitation related to work. I begin this discussion with presenting a case investigated

by the NAACP on behalf of a black woman in New Jersey, of a white family exploiting her for

free labor. This case labeled as peonage by the National Office, involved a woman who had been

exploited by the family since the age of 14. Mary Wright worked for the Meirs family without

pay since 1922 and the case was investigated by the NAACP beginning in 1947. Ms. Wright is

described as being unable to read or write, and much of the information about her was provided

by paid servants in the family’s household.

274

NAACP investigators describe Ms. Wright as

speaking “timidly and…afraid of someone hearing her.”

275

In addition, investigators find out that

the Meir’s family rationalized not paying her by telling her that “banks aren’t accepting money

and the trains are not running for her to return home.”

276

The impact of the exploitation of this

woman is noted by NAACP investigators in the excerpt below.

Ms. Meirs stated that Mary was too big to send to school when she came to New Jersey.

She had little school when in Delaware and she had tried to teach her to read. ‘Would you

send a fourteen year old girl to school with five year old’s?’ I [NAACP Field

274

Mary Wright, Box 108, Part 1, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

275

Mary Wright, Box 108, Part 1, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

276

Mary Wright, Box 108, Part 1, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

156

Investigator] replied yes, that I had taught school for six years and that it was not

uncommon for overage children to just commence school. I then addressed Mary and

asked if she wished to leave with us. Mary hesitated for some time and did not answer. In

fact, during the entire time, Mary said very little. Mrs. Meirs asked if Mary said she

wanted to leave the farm. I replied yes. Mrs. Meirs then turned to Mary and said ‘I told

you last summer you could pack your things and go, didn't I? ‘Mary replied, ‘No.’ During

this conversation Mrs. Meirs was shouting at Mary. Mary seemed to be afraid of Mrs.

Meirs, but she answered unhesitatingly.

277

The NAACP investigator noted that attempts to remove Mary from the home were repeated, on

one such occasion, the worker discusses with Mary the possibility of leaving, but Mr. Meirs

intimidated her, the investigator reported.

Her eyes were red. Mary was trembling. Mr. Meirs said, ‘Mary has something to tell

you.’ Mary whispered, ‘I don’t want to go.’ I said, ‘Mary, what made you change your

mind.’ She did not answer me. I stepped out of the house. Mr. Meirs said, ‘I raised her

from a child and babied her, to be treated like this’ Mr. Meirs then stated, ‘Mr. Moore,

don’t you or them set another foot in my place.’ His voice low but biting. I left.

278

This case in particular can be connected to the labor exploitation and restriction to domestic

service relative to the worker experience of black women in the second half of the twentieth

century. This case also represents an extremely exploitative condition where a black woman was

treated paternalistically and relegated to a dependent relationship with no family members. Her

fear of leaving outweighed the abuse she experienced. As noted from the archival evidence, the

NAACP investigators and workers made repeated attempts to remove her from the Meirs

household, conveying their concern for Mary. This case reveals a dependent relationship this

domestic worker had with her exploitative employer. She lived in slavery-like conditions where

she lacked access to education and mobility.

The 1947 case of Mrs. Lester Jackson also is noteworthy.

279

The NAACP brought

attention to the pattern of federal employment agencies attempting to restrict black women to

277

Mary Wright, Box 108, Part 1, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

278

Mary Wright, Box 108, Part 1, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

279

A238, Folder 4, Part 2, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington DC.

157

domestic service. Mrs. Lester Jackson, as noted by the NAACP, was a trained and experienced

teacher attempting to register for work in education. The interviewer at the employment agency

responsible for job placement was noted by the NAACP as, “telling her she could only register

for housework.”

280

Mrs. Lester, as noted by NAACP personnel, had no experience nor the desire

to be a housekeeper, and insisted that she be registered as a teacher. They also referred to her as a

“neat and clean colored woman worthy of being registered as a teacher.”

281

The NAACP brought

this case to a broader investigation of the federal employment agency in New Jersey’ pattern of

registering black women as domestic workers regardless of their qualifications, as in the case of

Mrs. Lester Jackson. The details from this case provide evidence that the NAACP not only

investigated the complaint of Ms. Lester but moved towards a broader examination of the New

Jersey Employment office for acts attempting to restrict black women to domestic service.

Exchange about this case in particular occurred between Walter White, Executive secretary for

the NAACP from 1929-1995 and Lily Turhune, Secretary of the Welfare Society. These

individuals discussed addressing discrimination against black women in New Jersey.

The NAACP addressed the employment discrimination of black women in the area of

domestic labor as well as the defense industries as presented in the previous pages. Further cases

investigated by the NAACP show that they also recognized the gendered nature of this

discrimination. Black women’s womanhood was denied as they were not viewed as embodying

‘traditional’ notions of womanhood. An example is the NAACP national office, brought charges

against a private bank in Charlotte North Carolina, for discrimination against black women who

were pregnant employees. In the cases of Diane Gabriel, Sandra Williams and Carolyn

Morrison, these women were prevented from returning to work after giving birth to children. In

280

A238, Part 2, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

281

A238, Part 2, NAACP Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

158

each of these cases, the NAACP notes that these women when requesting a return date from

supervisors, they were told their positions had already been filled in their absence. Prevailing

stereotypes of black women as caretakers and cooks prevented black women from entering

occupations they were trained in. The violent denial of employment and employment training

opportunities were experiences black women faced during this period following World War II.

159

CHAPTER SEVEN

Conclusion: Research Limitations & Implications for Further Research

In this section, I summarize the goals of each chapter. For the findings chapters in

particular, I discuss the goals and limitations associated with my arguments and the cases

involving NAACP advocacy in housing, police brutality, and employment discrimination. In

addition, I discuss why it is important that social advocacy and nonprofit work should consider

the complexities of intersectional identities. Finally, I discuss the contemporary mission of the

NAACP, and how the twenty-first century mission and contemporary work is more explicit

about the needs of black women.

The goal of this dissertation was to examine how black women’s cases of discrimination

filed with the NAACP highlighted intersectional discrimination based on their intersectional

identities. It offers a sense into the racism, sexism and classism black women faced from 1945-

1995 though looking at the actions of the NAACP. The framework of intersectionality helped to

guide the analysis of specific issues that came from archives.The time period itself is significant

for this research because it embodies a period of policy shift and increased access for African

Americans. The increased access during this period can be related to specific political changes

including, Executive Order 9981 in 1948 that sought to abolish discrimination in the armed

services, Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Civil Rights Act of 1968 which both contain provisions

seeking to eliminate employment and housing discrimination on the basis of race and sex among

other characteristics. The NAACP was selected for this research period considering it is the

longest standing organization in the United States working towards preventing social

marginalization on the basis of race or color. In addition, black women, the population selected

for this research inquiry, held various leadership and administrative positions within the

160

organization both prior to and during the selected research period. In addition, the NAACP

membership during this period grew eight times over.

The research in this dissertation was carried out through qualitative method, archival

approach and data was applied to the empirical framework of intersectionality. The original

research inquiry initiating the study necessitated the use of archival research, and the population

that I focused on required the use of the framework of intersectionality. Because this study

investigated the experiences of black women with the NAACP in the second half of the 20th

century, I used archival material located at the NAACP national archives at the Library Of

Congress, Manuscript Division. Throughout the data analysis portion, the theoretical framework

of intersectionality was employed to understand how the issues that emerged in the archives

could be considered intersectional experiences for black women. A general limitation that comes

from utilizing this methodology, is that my analysis is based on individuals, or groups reaching

out to the NAACP for assistance on a variety of issues related to social discrimination. This

means that there is sample bias as many black women faced intersectional discrimination but

never filed complaints. While I do not generalize that all black women faced the same

discrimination in housing, police interactions and in employment, these cases offer a window

into some of their experiences in each of the areas.

The literature review chapter of this dissertation helped contextualize the general research

inquiry as well as establish textual understanding of the theoretical framework of

intersectionality. The presentation in the literature reviewed helped to situate the general

research inquiry within historic discussions of the relationship between black liberation and

women's liberation. Some scholars argued that black liberation efforts supported women’s

liberation, while others argued that women’s liberation only appropriated the strategies and

161

ideologies of black liberation. The literature review also examined important discussions and

helped note the racism, and sexism associated with the theoretical framework of intersectionality,

as it has been discussed implicitly in reference to social movements in the United States. In

addition, from this portion of the dissertation I was able to situate where my research would

contribute. Specifically, I examined how an organization noted historically for its effort to

improve the lives of black Americans, also worked to address the unique experiences of black

women. The latter is in the portion of the literature review that discusses NAACP historical

literature. I looked out how NAACP literature produced for the era, looked at the contributions

of black women in how they worked as agents of change for the organization, and not how it

impacted black women as a population. My research investigated how NAACP actions

addressed the lives of black women as a constituency.

Findings: Housing Advocacy

Housing advocacy during the research period of 1945-1995, emerged with approximately

thirty cases involving black women that were located in the NAACP archives and included from

the research period. In presenting the housing trend in NAACP advocacy for black women I laid

out an argument for how housing can be considered an intersectional issue for the population.

First, I discussed how historically, and specifically during the period preceding World War II,

social marginalization on the basis of race broadly characterized black Americans experiences

with housing and issues related to housing. The racial bias characterizing black Americans

housing experiences during the period were rooted in systemic racist perceptions of black people.

I then examine how black women can experience that reality, as well as one that because of

sexism subjects them to negative stereotypes of representation. I argue, that the racist and sexist

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social constructions of black women’s identities subjected them to a form of discrimination

recognized in the actions of the NAACP. I explain that the NAACP likely recognized this,

because of the rise of black female led households during the period, coupled with the NAACP

focus on enforcing federal housing law. I then present the cases and examine how they reflect

the specific way black women may have been discriminated against in housing during the period.

There are limitations associated with presenting NAACP housing advocacy data and

making an argument that the organization made impact considering black women can be affected

by a combination of racism and sexism. First, because I found no explicit statement from the

NAACP within their housing advocacy platform for the period that made distinctions in how

they addressed issues for families, black men and black women. In order to make my argument I

looked at their direct actions involving the lives of specific black women. This means that I had

to make an argument that the organization impacted the lives of black women, being careful not

to define impact as a comparison to the experiences of other subgroups within the general black

population. My argument is based solely from the direct actions from national, local and regional

branches. A second limitation, is that my work looks broadly at the work of the NAACP in the

United States and does not include details of specific locations of the organization that can

impact the access different branches had to black women, especially those impacted by the issue

areas covered in this dissertation. Issues such as the branch’s surrounding population size, the

concerns of the local administration of branches, and political limitations that may have been

placed on particular organizations.

Findings: Advocacy against Police Brutality

NAACP advocacy against police brutality emerged frequently in the NAACP national

archives following documentation from the 44th national convention in 1953, where police

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brutality was discussed as a common issue facing Black Americans. In this section of my

dissertation the goal was to begin by establishing the relevance of police brutality and police

interaction in black communities as inherently racialized. Next, I discussed how black women

can be impacted because of their race, but also how their gender identity makes their racial

experience different from the general black population. Black women have a gender identity, that

through stereotyping and unfair representation distorts how violence is viewed as impacting their

lives. Specifically, I present NAACP cases of police brutality, and argue that details of the cases

they recognize, reflects attention to the unique realities black women experience with regard to

state violence. Specifically, the identities of black women discussed in this chapter, were

degraded in an attempt to rationalize violence against them. The NAACP recognized them in

contrast to the attempts to degrade their identities.

Similar to the housing findings, cases of police brutality in the lives of black women for

the time period contain two notable limitations. First, many of the cases I identified in the

national archives where the NAACP addressed police brutality in the lives of black women were

concentrated in the 1950s and the 1960s. This means that the relevance of the issue for the

NAACP could be compromised, because of the emergence of organizations focused on police

brutality in the late 1960s, such as the Black Panther Party (BPP, founded 1966) and Student

Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, founded 1960). The existence of the Black Panther

Party in particular could have had an impact on the NAACP accessing police brutality cases in

the late 1960s and into the 1970s because according to the archives, they were critical of and

sought to distance themselves from the BPP. Second, because I am looking for evidence of

impact in the direct action across branches of the organization, my analysis can be limited by not

covering the characteristics of individual branches that could impact the access they had to black

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women, or police brutality cases. These issues could include, political retrains of the local area,

the size of the population and the percentage of the black population that were black women.

Findings: Employment Advocacy

Employment advocacy during the second half of the twentieth century, from 1945 to

1995, emerged with many cases involving the NAACP in defense of black women. The goal of

this chapter was to establish how the history of labor and employment can be considered an

intersectional issue characterized by racism and sexism and understand the impact it had on

black women. In order to accomplish the latter, I began by discussing in detail the history of the

relationship between Black Americans and labor in the United States. From this history, I went

into discussing the marginalization and exploitation of black women in the labor market from the

stereotype images used to minimize their identities and restrict them to the domestic service

sector. The third part of this chapter was a presentation of NAACP employment cases where the

organization acted in defense of black women. The cases in this chapter were used to support

how black women experienced domestic labor exploitation, and discrimination according to

public perceptions distancing them from the quality of femininity. In addition, I defined the race

and gender worker identity of black women in this chapter. The NAACP employment advocacy

efforts, can be considered in alignment with policy changes, especially following Brown v.

Board of Education (1954) as well as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the

establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 1965. These policy shifts

can be considered as having an impact on the way the NAACP focused on ensuring federal and

private employers were compliant with the law, thus giving rise to specific discrimination suits.

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The issues for black women that emerged were: domestic worker exploitation, sexual

exploitation and degradation, and discrimination against pregnant black women.

Similar to previous findings chapters, the employment findings contain two notable

limitations. The first limitation is that the data on employment advocacy is based on the

availability of employment opportunities for black women depending on the original location of

the data. Specifically, depending on the region of the United States the cases emerge from,

access to employment or the health of the local economy could impact the NAACP access to

cases of discrimination. A second limitation, is related to the significant number of cases

requiring legal defense with regard to employment. This means that a branch of the NAACP

would need to have the administrative capacity to pursue a case of that nature. Without knowing

the details of an individual branches’ legal capacity, it is difficult to rationalize any change in the

rate of employment cases on behalf of black women.

Implications for Further Research: Social Advocacy, Black Women's Liberation, and

NAACP Contemporary Goals and Activities

The importance of this research in the contemporary period relates to the complexity of

social identity and social oppression in nonprofit and social advocacy work in the United States.

Specifically, by studying a population uniquely impacted by racism and sexism, I was able to

begin to see how issue areas including those not contained in this dissertation (employment,

housing, education, legal defense, anti-poverty programs) are more than one dimensional and

must be understood according to the identities of the population one is seeking to have

meaningful impact with. This is especially important when working with populations that are

marginalized by complex systems characterized by race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity,

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religion and nationality. Future research should examine how nonprofit organizations such as the

NAACP addressed intersectional identities in other contemporary work.

In 2011, the NAACP released a strategic plan to improve the advocacy efforts in its

nearly 2500 branches throughout the United States. Their work at the end of the twentieth

century in some ways were aligned with their goals in the twenty-first century. The strategic

platform of the NAACP in the United States, focused on education, health, public safety and

criminal justice, voting rights and political representation, and finally expanding youth and

young adult engagement.

Each of these issue areas contain a breakdown of goals to help the public understand the

work of the organization, in addition to bringing the work of its branches in uniform. In the area

of education, the NAACP at the national level details the following goals: (1) increasing resource

equity and target funding to neediest kids; (2) ensuring college and career readiness as well as a

path to success after graduation to all students; (3) improving teaching and growing great

teaching in underserved communities; and (4) improving discipline by eliminating zero tolerance

and keeping kids in school. For healthcare the organization's goals for the twenty-first century

include (1) a focus on African Americans and other people of color having access to timely and

affordable healthcare and (2) a focus on preventing and treating diseases that disproportionately

impact African Americans (such as diabetes, obesity, HIV and AIDS). For the issue of safety and

criminal justice the organization’s goals are (1) treatment for addiction and mental health, and

(2) addressing problems with judicial sentencing that disproportionately impact African

Americans. For the area of voting rights and political representation goals are (1) free, open and

protected access to the vote and fair representation at all levels of the political process; (2)

increasing democratic participation and civic engagement; and (3) increasing proportion of

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African Americans in public office. And finally, the NAACP strategic goal around youth and

adult engagement is to increase the capacity of local branches and provide them with more of the

resources necessary to engage younger populations.

The twenty-first century platform outlined in the previous page combined with more

recent announcements made at the national level, provides some context for where my research

can potentially be applied. Specifically, at the beginning of 2019, NAACP President Derrick

Johnson announced that the NAACP would be investing more efforts in a research based

approach. Johnson specifically noted that “new structure will enable the association to deploy

resources efficiently as conditions on the ground continue dictate, to employ a research based

approach to civic engagement and to ensure closer alignment between National office staff and

NAACP branches across the nation.”

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Implications from research from the twentieth-century activities of the NAACP can

contribute to the strategic research oriented goals around social advocacy, as well as the goal of

bringing the activities of individual branches closer in uniform. The issue areas that were

discussed in this dissertation are police brutality, employment advocacy and advocacy against

housing discrimination, they all can inform work of the 21st century.

For the issue of police brutality in this dissertation, black women can experience violence

impacted by historical representations of their identities. Specifically, black women could

experience marginalization in the area of racialized police violence because of their gender

identity. Based on the NAACP response in some of these cases strategic research from their

twenty-first century platform could look at how the stereotypes of black women are embedded in

certain practices of social service efforts. Furthermore, because my research is limited in

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NAACP, “NAACP Restructures to Advance Advocacy Strategy,” press release, February 16, 2019.

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identifying the effect of local demography and history of black women in communities where

local branches are, NAACP contemporary work could go further to identify those details and

how they may influence appearance of stereotypes of representation that impact black women’s

access and quality of services.

For the area of housing advocacy in this dissertation I argued the rise of black female led

households, coupled with stereotypes of representation for black women could produce a pattern

of discrimination against black female led households. Based on information from NAACP cases

of housing defense for black women in the twentieth century, the work of the twenty-first

century could be strategic in examining how changes in black populations could influence

responses based on stereotypes of representation. Similar to the area of police brutality

contemporary strategic research of the twenty-first century platform could examine the

demographic of specific branch locations of the NAACP, and the characteristics of the specific

black population toward understanding unique needs and the potential for communities to hold

stereotypes for those black populations.

Finally, for the area of employment advocacy I argued that the history of labor in the

United States for black Americans and black women in particular resulted in a deeply rooted

pattern of labor exploitation. The pattern of labor exploitation for black women can reflect

historical perceptions of their labor related to specific racial and gender stereotypes. My

arguments in this chapter can help inform strategic efforts of the twenty-first century by

emphasizing that historical roots influence contemporary economic displacement or specifically

inextricable labor or employment discrimination. In addition, the NAACP contemporary

platform for the twenty-first century could go further as to identify historical factors of specific

black populations in areas where NAACP branches are located. Specifically, going from an area

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of limitation in my research, to identify access to employment, demography and other local

economy factors that can influence specific black communities.

While the previous discussion is based on the assumption that a significant amount of

work of the NAACP in the twenty-first century would focus on the lives and experiences of

black women, the research in this dissertation can also provide insight into the goal of bringing

NAACP branches closer in uniform when performing for Black Americans and other populations

of color. Future research on the NAACP can go beyond the limitations of the research in this

dissertation and identify impact relative to the specific characteristics of the demographic

surrounding local and regional branches. Specifically, identifying the characteristics of specific

populations can enable an understanding of the amount of resources a branch needs to expand its

capacity to serve its surrounding population, assuming that the local branch would serve its

proximate community. What I am referring to here is equity and bringing all branches up to a

specific performance bar, according to what they need to have the same level of effectiveness

with other branches.

The NAACP has not existed without criticism. For example, while police brutality cases

were investigated in this research the organization has been criticized for not addressing the

issue. For example in an article discussing Rosa Parks and police brutality in Michigan, Say

Burgin discusses how the Detroit branch of the NAACP struggled to gain community support on

cases of police brutality stating that “that issue struggled to gain traction outside of poor

communities, especially urban Black communities, in the 1960s. The Detroit NAACP chapter

struggled for years to make police brutality a concern to white officials, but they toiled in vain.

The group’s executive secretary, Arthur Johnson, maintained that Detroit’s newspapers ‘had a

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standing agreement not to cover incidents of police brutality.’ ”

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Police brutality concerns black

men and women and particular focus on black women cases must be addressed.

Though occurring years after the NAACP advocated for direct action against police

brutality just over ten years earlier, what Burgin presents is still a relevant internal contradiction

with the national platform.

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Another example comes from more recent years. Scholar and

activist Andrea Ritchie has criticized a local branch for inaction on the issue of police brutality in

the life of a transgender black woman, Duanna Johnson. Ritchie criticized the NAACP’s

response: “The local NAACP said, essentially, as an explanation for their inaction, “We don't

condone what happened to her, but we don't condone her lifestyle either.”

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Ritchie’s criticism

provides an opportunity for the NAACP to expand how its branches conceptualize and articulate

black identity beyond binary and conservative parameters. It is important to respond to diversity

within black communities. As recent as 2019, the NAACP publicly recognized the experiences

of black women and explicitly engaged the concept intersectionality. In a May 2019 edition of

the NAACP’s Crisis magazine they reference scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw, a proponent of

intersectionality, stating that

Black women often operate at the intersection where race and gender meet, experiencing

heightened social challenges in today’s society. The potential for discrimination widens

with each added intersection. Black women are even further marginalized if they have a

disability, identify as LGBTQ+, or are a religious minority, to name a few.

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This statement is also important and an area of growth for the organization considering

its broader legal strategies have rarely explicitly incorporated intersectionality for black women

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Say Burgin, “Rosa Parks on Police Brutality: The Speech We Never Heard,” AAIHS, January 23, 2020.

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Say Burgin, “Rosa Parks on Police Brutality: The Speech We Never Heard,” AAIHS, January 23, 2020.

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Andrea Ritchie, as quoted in a talk at Brooklyn College, November 1, 2017. See also Robert Jones, Jr., “Co-

creator of #SAYHERNAME Spotlights Police Violence Against Black Women and LGBTQ People at Brooklyn

College Event,” CUNY media release, November 8, 2017, https://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2017/11/08/co-creator-

of-sayhername-spotlights-police-violence-against-black-women-and-lgbtq-people-at-brooklyn-college-event/.

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Benjamin Crump, “Say Her Name,” Crisis, May 10, 2019.

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during the 20th century. The organization had made explicit reference to black women

experiencing both racism and sexism without the label of intersectionality, but this had not been

tied to formal legal suits, legal strategies, publicity or cases regarding specific black women.

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This is why my research focuses on how the NAACP responded to specific black women and

what those cases can tell us about their work and how they recognized the distinct reality of

black women before it was given a popularized label of intersectionality; thus beginning to

theorize on what intersectional strategies would look like in the lives of black women.

It is important future research and contemporary organization’s practice focus on black women.

Contemporary dialogues of movements such as Black Lives Matter, which was initiated by queer

women of color, as well as Say Her Name, which was a movement shedding light on the

invisibility of black women’s violent encounters with police. The theoretical discussion in this

dissertation with specific regard to police brutality, can contribute to both of these contemporary

social movements. Specifically, in this dissertation I interpreted the social issue of police

brutality as an intersectional issue and this interpretation situates police brutality both historically

and within institutional advocacy. Understanding how organizations work to bring attention to

the experiences of black women has the potential to extend the goals of contemporary social

movements like Black Lives Matter and Say Her Name and create sustainability through black

institutionalization.

Furthermore, applying intersectionality to contemporary social advocacy issues can be

important towards understanding how we can measure the impact of social advocacy and direct

action in the lives of distinct groups that exist within an already impacted demographic,

according to their distinct experiences. This research can develop in the future, by examining

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Papers of the NAACP, Library of Congress, Washington DC.

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how organizations that do not have such a historic relationship with a distinct population ( e.g.

Black Americans), work to understand the complexities of the populations they work with, even

when they provide one type of service. The latter, can potentially place the goal of effectiveness

in these organizations less on numeral output, and more on sustainable impact. For example, I

argue in the NAACP work that they addressed many sides of the complex experiences of black

women. These sides included: sexual exploitation, racial marginalization, discrimination against

their role as mothers as well as other characteristics impacting their overall quality of life.

The relationship black women have with the NAACP has been outlined in the

introductory as well as the literary portions of this dissertation. To reiterate the points made

previously, black women became a critical part of the organization in order to address the racial

and gender biases inherent in their work in the early 20th century. The work of black women

carried into the administrative, field and political areas of the organization. This is also one of the

core reasons I choose to investigate how this organization had an impact on their lives.

Considering this foundation in the twenty-first century, the NAACP appears to have made

explicit strides in representing black women and girls and recognizing their needs. In 2014, the

organization produced a study, “Unlocking Opportunity for African American Girls” that

investigated the way black girls were disproportionately subjected to harassment, excessive

discipline, and discrimination through various stereotypes through their experiences with

education. The goal of the NAACP to address their experiences was to provide programing

tailored to these needs such as, access to counseling, scholarships to STEM programs and

increasing access to extracurricular activities. For black women in particular, the organization

has appeared to make strides in the twenty-first century towards publicly and explicitly

supporting black women. In 2019 for example, the organization joined the Women's March

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highlighting issues important to black women such as healthcare, the economy, education,

national security, and criminal justice. It was at this event, that members of a local chapter also

stated the intersectional experiences of black women with regard to these issues.

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The future

success of the NAACP depends on their commitment to black women as noted in a recent online

journal by Luvvie Ajayi Jones (2020), titled “ Black Women are the Adults in the Room” who

constantly challenge racism, sexism and classism.

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NAACP press release, January 18, 2019.

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NAACP, “Importance of Black women in Electoral Politics Through Civic Engagement,” press release, 110th

National Convention July 11, 2019.

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