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Early Community Work of Black Club Women Author(s): Gerda Lerner Source: The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Apr., 1974), pp. 158-167 Published by: Association for the Study of African American Life and History Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2717327 Accessed: 11-06-2017 13:42 UTC

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EARLY COMMUNITY WORK OF BLACK CLUB WOMEN

by

GERDA LERNER

Blaick women organized, throughout the nineteenth century, at first

on a local, later- on a state and national level, to undertake educational, philanthropic and welfare activities. Urbanization, the urgent needs of

the poor in a period of rapid industrialization and the presence of a

sizeable group of educated women with leisure led to the emergence of a national club movement of white women after the Civil War. Similar conditions did not begin to operate in the black communities until the

1890's, when local clubs in a number of different cities began almost simultaneously to form federations. In 1896 the newly formed National Association of Colored Women (NACW) united the three largest of

these and over a hundred local women's clubs.1 The activities of the black women's club movement were recorded

by the pioneering black historians.2 However, the continuity and ex- tent of this work and its significance have largely escaped the notice of historians. There is as yet no adequate history of the black women's club movement and no interpretative literature.3 Because of the widely

scattered nature of this effort, the fluid structure of the NACW and the

Gerda Lerner is Professor of History and Director of Women's Studies at Sarah Law-

rence College. This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the American Histori-

cal Association, New Orleans, Louisiana, December, 1972 ' Fannie Barrier Williams, "Club Movement Among Negro Women", in J. W. Gibson

and W. H. Crogman, (eds.), Progress of a Race, (Atlanta, Ga: J. L. Nicholas Co..

1903);

Mary Church Terrell, "The History of the Club Movement", The Afro-American

Women's Journal, 1940. Typescript copy in Mary Church Terrell Papers, Library of Congress.

2 L. C. Scruggs, M. D., Women of Distinction, (Raleigh, N.C.: The Author, 1893): N. F. Mossell, The Work of the Afro-American Woman, (Philadelphia: George S. Ferguson

Co., 1908); National Encyclopedia of the Colored Race, Clement Richardson, (ed.), (Montgom-

ery, Alabama: National Publishing Co., 1919); Hallie Quinn Brown, Homespun Heroines and Other Women of Distinction, (Xenia:

The Aldine Publishing Co., 1926) are among the earlier books listing outstanding black women.

Elizabeth L. Davis, Lifting As Thev Climb: The National Association of Colored Women, (n.p.: The National Association of Colored Women, 1933) and

Elizabeth Lindsay Davis, The Stoiy of the Illinois Federation of Colored Womene's Clubs: 1900-1922, (n.p.: n.d., (1922)), an uncritical and disorganized assemblage of rec-

ords and documents pertaining to the NACW and one of its subsidiaries;

Emma Field, "The Women's Club Movement in the United States: 1877-1900". M.A.

Thesis in History, Howard University, 1948.

158

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COMMUNITY WORK OF BLACK CLUB WOMEN 159

succession of its publications, it has been difficult even to trace its actual strength and to follow its development.

Close study of women's clubs in several communities suggests that the importance of their work has been seriously underestimated. Con-

trary to widely held racist myths, black communities have a continuous record of self-help, institution-building and strong organization to which black women have made continuous contributions. This article will focus on only a few representative examples of this kind of work.

The impulse for organizing arose wherever an urgent social need remained unmet. Most frequently, women's clubs were formed in

order to provide kindergartens, nursery schools or day care centers for black children. The virtual absence of social welfare institutions in

many Southern communities and the frequent exclusion of Blacks from those that existed, led black women to found orphanages, old folks' homes and similar institutions. The founding and support of educa- tional institutions had been a continuous activity in the black commu- nity since the days of slavery, but the extent to which women contri-

buted and often sustained this effort has yet to be recorded. Since Reconstruction days the school teacher in her one-room schoolhouse was sustained by fund-raising committees of black church ladies' aux- iliaries long before she was the beneficiary of white philanthropy. In

the case of the most important female founders of black educational institutions-Emma J. Wilson, Cornelia Bowen, Lucy Lainey, Char- lotte Hawkins Brown, Nanny Burroughs and Mary McLeod Bethune-the schools became centers for community organizations, women's activities and a network of supporting institutions.4

Mary Margaret Washington, director of Girls Industries and later dean of women at Tuskegee Institute, organized the Tuskegee

Women's Club and was its president from its inception in 1895. This club can serve as a prototype for hundreds of its kind. Composed of a relatively small membership of educated women-from 35 to nearly a

hundred-it offered social and recreational programs, literary discus- sions, guest lecturers and self-study circles whose interests ranged from health and hygiene topics to Afro-American history.

4 For background information on these institutions see: Carter G. Woodson, The

Education of the Negro Prior to 1861, (N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915) and Henry A.

Bullock, A History of Negro Education in the South, from 1619 to the Present,

(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967). My generalizations are based on exten-

sive reading in the papers of Mary McLeod Bethune, Amistad Research Center, Dillard

University and Rosenwald Fund Papers, Fisk University; the Mary Margaret Washing-

ton Papers which are found in the Booker T. Washington Papers, Library of Congress;

the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Papers at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College.

Much information can be found in the publications of the Tuskegee Institute, Alabama,

Departments of Records and Research, Nos. 1-10, (Tuskegee, 1949-1961) and in the

publication of the Hampton Institute, The Southern Workman, 1872-1939.

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160 JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY

Membership in the club denoted a certain social standing in the

community and was not infrequently used to enforce the snobbish and restrictive attitudes of the leadership. The welfare activities, as re- ported in club records, show strong class prejudices on the part of the club women and reflect a patronizing, missionary attitude in dealing with the poor. These shortcomings were characteristic of the women's club movement of both races, but they should not overshadow the large amount of socially useful work done by these clubs.

Mothers' meetings provided uplifting educational discussions, ad- vice on child care, home economics, vegetable gardening and sewing. Missionary, temperance and welfare activities, and work at the local jail and settlement house was carried on in a regular way. Added to this variety of services were the running of a Sunday school, Bible teaching and-in many cases-of a kindergarten. The Tuskegee Club also ran a small library and took part in some suffrage and political activities. Similar work was carried on in hundreds of black communities and in conjunction with many schools and colleges.5

In the 1890's the long tradition of women's organized effort in sup- port of some local charitable or educational institution was trans- formed into something new and different by the emergence of multi- purpose women's clubs, embracing a broad range of activities and interests. The immediate stimulus of their formation was political: the defense of the race against lynchings. In 1892, Ida B. Wells, the in- trepid Memphis journalist and newspaper editor, exposed the economic motives for the brutal lynching of three black businessmen, urged resistance, boycott and emigration as a weapon for black survi- val. As a result of her stand, her newspaper office and equipment were destroyed, and her life was threatened, should she dare return to the

city. Ida B. Wells responded by organizing a nation-wide anti-lynching crusade. Her constant theme was to expose lynching as an integral part of the system of racial oppression, the motives for which were usually economic or political. She hit hard at the commonly used alibi for lynchings, the charge of "rape", and dared bring out into the open the most taboo subject of all in Victorian America-the habitual sexual abuse of black women by white men. Thus, she expressed what was to become the ideological direction of the organized movement of black women-a defense of black womanhood as part of a defense of the race from terror and abuse.6

5 Report of the Tuskegee Women's Club; 1904-1905, (n.p., 1906). Pamphlet.

6 On Ida B. Wells see: Alfreda M. Duster, ed., Crusade for Justice, The Autobiog-

raphy of Ida B. Wells, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970).

For Ida B. Wells' view on rape and lynchings, see: Ida B. Wells, A Red Record,

(Chicago: Donohue & Henneberry, 1895). This and the views of other women's club

leaders on lynching are cited in Gerda Lerner (ed.), Black Women in White America: A

Documentary History, (New York: Pantheon Books, 1972), pp. 193-215.

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COMMUNITY WORK OF BLACK CLUB WOMEN 161

On the eve of her departure for England, where she would inspire the organization of the British Anti-Lynching Society, Ida B. Wells

spoke at a fund-raising rally in her support, organized by a group of prominent New York women. This 1892 meeting, which brought to- gether Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin of Boston, Victoria Earle Matthews of New York and Dr. Susan McKinney of Brooklyn, in- spired the formation of the two first black women's clubs. The New York and Brooklyn women formed the Women's Loyal Union and somewhat later, Mrs. St. Pierre Ruffin organized the Woman's Era Club of Boston. On her return from England Mrs. Wells-Barnett helped to organize the first women's club in Chicago in 1893. The Ida B. Wells Club met weekly on "Ladies' Day" in the club house of the all-male Tourgee Club. Its members did charitable work, operated a kindergarten, brought prominent cultural and political leaders to town for lectures and were politically active in defense of the race against lynchings, police brutality and discrimination.7 Following shortly upon the organization of the first club in Chicago the Phillis Wheatley Club was organized in 1896 to work for neighborhood improvements. It began to operate a day nursery in 1904 and in 1908 set up a home for girls. Within a decade there were seven colored women's clubs active in the city of Chicago.8

Several of the leaders of this organizing effort-Ida B. Wells, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Mary Church Terrell-freely acknowl- edged that they had been influenced by the success of the white women's club movement. The general encouragement of voluntary efforts to solve social ills, which prevailed in the Progressive period, may have contributed to the "spirit of organization" which seemed to take hold of many minds at once during the decade. The example of successful effort in one place immediately fired enthusiasts in another to solve their problems by way of a women's club.

The move toward a national organization was actively promoted by Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, who organized the First National Confer- ence of Colored Women in Boston in 1895. The National Federation of Afro-American Women was founded the same year with Mrs. Mary Margaret Washington as president. It united 36 women's clubs in twelve states, including the New Era Club. Meanwhile a similar movement toward national unity had taken place under the leadership

of the Washington Women's Club and led to the formation of the National League of Colored Women under Mrs. Mary Church Terrell's leadership. There ensued a brief rivalry for leadership of the

7 Duster, Ida B. Wells, pp. 78-81.

8 E. L. Davis, Illinois Federation . . ., pp. 95-96, 99-101. See also Alan H. Spear,

Black Chicago: The Making of a Negro Ghetto: 1890-1920, (Chicago: Universrity of

Chicago Press, 1967), pp. 101-102.

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162 JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY

national organization, which was resolved when the two groups united in 1896 and drew large numbers of new affiliates into the National

Association of Colored Women. The national federation movement greatly spurred organizational

activity and put it on a more business-like basis. The reporting of club activities in the various women's journals lent dignity and a sense of direction to the small groups of local women, taught them more sophis- ticated methods of organization and provided channels for the training of leadership. It is notable that these activities seemed to cluster around colleges or urban centers.

A great many women's clubs responded specifically to the needs of migrants to urban centers. Victoria Earle Matthews, founder and pres- ident of the Women's Loyal Union, perceived the need for social work among black girls who had recently arrived in New York City from the South seeking employment. She founded the White Rose Mission in 1897 as a shelter and rescue home and set up branches in various cities. Typically, the White Rose Mission expanded its work to that of a settlement house, offering recreation, literary and cultural events and

classes on Negro History. Jane Edna Hunter founded the Working Girls' Home Association (renamed the Phillis Wheatley Association) in Cleveland in 1911. Originally designed to serve as a shelter for black girls denied admission to the city's YWCA, it soon became a settle- ment house, offering a full range of social and educational activities, an employment agency and a summer camp. Under Jane Hunter's guid-

ance similar institutions sprang up in a number of cities and several states. An example of a women's club first concerned with national goals and later with local work is the Colored Woman's League of Washington, D.C. Created in 1892, it helped to organize the first na- tional organization of black women. Its local work consisted of estab- lishing a training center for kindergarten teachers and then setting up

and maintaining seven free kindergartens and several day nurseries. As was the case in many of these pioneering efforts, the kindergartens, orphanages and old people's homes were taken over by local or state authorities as soon as they had proven themselves successful. The Washington kindergartens were incorporated into the public school system of the city, most of the black teachers employed in them being graduates of the League's training school.9

The Atlanta Neighborhood Union is remarkable among all these successful institutions for its continuity of service from 1908 to the

9 On Victoria Earle Matthews see: J. E. Bruce, "Noted Race Women I Have Known and Met", J. E. Bruce Manuscript, Schomburg Collection, N. Y. Public Library and Woman's Era, II, #5 (Aug. 1895) and III, #5 (Jan. 1897).

On Colored Woman's League of Washington D.C., see: Andrew F. Hilyer, (ed.), The 20th Century Union League Directory: A Historical, Biographical and Statistical Study

of Colored Washington, (Washington, D.C. Union League, 1901), p. 155-56.

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COMMUNITY WORK OF BLACK CLUB WOMEN 163

present, for the sophisticated level of organization sustaining it and for

the wide range and scope of its services. Like Hull House in Chicago,

with which it can adequately be compared, it represents an unusual

organizational achievement under the leadership of an unusual woman.

Yet, as can be seen from the above brief account, the Neighborhood Union can also be viewed as a representative prototype.10

In 1908 faculty wives and women residing in the neighborhood of

Spelman and Morehouse Colleges met in order to find some means of relieving the urgent need for playspace for their children. There was in Atlanta not a single playground or park for black children. The women persuaded the administration of Morehouse College to allow the use of part of its grounds for a playground. Since the college insisted on

adequate supervision, the women themselves undertook to organize it and to raise funds for necessary equipment. This involved contacting local businesses and securing donations of equipment and of workmen to install it. This venture brought the women closer together, gave them confidence in their own ability and inspired them to look out for

other community problems in need of solving. Before long, the small group of women defined its aim more ambitiously as the "moral,

economic and social advancement of Negroes" in Atlanta. Branch organizations were set up in different parts of the city, united

in the Neighborhood Union; educational work was begun, and a wide range of social service projects were undertaken. Yearly carnivals and Fourth of July celebrations for children were major neighborhood events. Neighborhood home and street clean-up campaigns, gardening and improvement drives, support of anti-TB and Red Cross campaigns and the establishment of summer Bible schools for children were among the earlier activities, which became regularly established tradi- tions. Children's clubs combined recreation, education and day care and, incidentally, attracted the children's mothers to further activities.

Considering the bad state of educational facilities for Blacks, a So- cial Improvement Committee was set up in 1913 to "better conditions of the Negro in the public schools in Atlanta." This committee under- took a six-months' fact-finding investigation in which every colored school was visited and inspected. Deplorable physical conditions, se- vere overcrowding, double sessions with one teacher teaching both sessions, were widely prevalent. The committee's action-oriented re- sponse to these findings is instructive: Members of the committee

10 All information about the Atlanta Neighborhood Union is based on study of the

Neighborhood Union Papers. Trevor Arnett Library, Atlanta University. Also on a

typescript in these papers, "Survey of the Work of the Neighborhood Union" by W. Walter Chivers (undated).

Excerpts from the Neighborhood Union Papers are reprinted in Lerner, G., (ed.),

Black Women pp. 500-509.

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164 JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY

lobbied with the mayor and members of the City Council, and sys- tematically visited white religious leaders and influential white women. The latter were induced to visit some of the colored schools and their support for reform measures was secured. Public meetings were ar- ranged, at which slide shows brought the school conditions before large audiences. Petitions were circulated and the board of education was put under constant pressure. These tactics resulted in the estab- lishment of an additional school in temporary quarters, the raising of the salaries of black teachers and continued pressure on politicians around school issues. However, such pressure was inadequate to alter the racist neglect of black schools. The issue was still hot in 1923; another school survey revealed "seating capacity is only 42% of total enrollment. The children are on triple sessions .. . there is/are an average of 72 children for each teacher employed." By then, a school- by-school survey revealed that only two per cent of black children were getting what the committee considered "adequate school work."

In 1915 the Neighborhood Union established a Health Center, which offered a medical clinic, health education activities and nursing services. This work was expanded and sustained for over three de- cades. Thus the Health Committee reported that in 1927 nearly a

thousand children "were examined in 36 health clinics, 82 mothers are enrolled in Mothers' Clubs, two new Boys' Clubs have been organized.... [In 1928] 27 medical clinics were held, in which more than 800 school children were examined and treated. Three health classes were organized for 78 women in the community, two new Boys' Clubs were organized with an enrollment of 112; two Girls' Clubs were organized; and almost 3000 pieces of literature were distri- buted." And in 1931/2, at the height of the depression, "[T]he Health Clinic at the Neighborhood Union House was enlarged to include medical and dental clinics and mothers' clinics for home care of the sick. A registered nurse, a doctor and a dentist were in attendance. Over 4000 people used the services of the Health center. 684 pre- school-age children were treated, 176 families were supplied with milk, and 432 children were supplied with cod liver oil."

Annual participation in anti-tuberculosis drives and Red Cross cam- paigns organized by Neighborhood Union women brought the black community health services from which it had previously been ex- cluded.

Home improvement and clean-up campaigns were oriented both to- ward self-help and the exerting of political pressure. Typically, housing conditions in the black ghetto were sub-standard, over-crowding se- vere. A 1917 housing survey organized by the Neighborhood Union revealed consistently appalling conditions: no street lights, unpaved streets; inadequate trash and garbage removal; homes lacking adequate toilet facilities; contaminated water supply. The survey was continued

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COMMUNITY WORK OF BLACK CLUB WOMEN 165

in 1921, when over 5000 homes were visited. The result of that single campaign was 40 houses repaired, two

streets paved, lights put on one street, improvements made in twelve streets, plumbing repaired in one house, sewers put on two streets, toilets repaired in one house, and street improvements made in twenty

streets. The Neighborhood Union purchased a building in 1922, which be-

came the center for its varied activities. It housed the health clinic, social service staff, mothers' clubs, Boy and Girl scout troops, homemaking and woodworking classes and a great many more ac- tivities. The settlement house also took an interest in the Herndon Day

Nursery, The Gate City Free Kindergarten which had been founded

by Mrs. Lugenia Hope, and in the colored YWCA. In the same way in which Hull House became the focal point for a broad range of reform activities, so the Neighborhood Union serviced the various needs of the community for several generations. Women who were active in the Neighborhood Union in the 1930's had, as children, grown up in and around that settlement house.

Neighborhood Union committees functioned in a business-like man- ner, volunteer secretaries kept meticulous records, often written in long-hand in school notebooks. An example of the way drives were

organized is the "Plan of Work: of the Atlanta Colored Women's War Council," a group formed during World War I for the purpose of providing recreational facilities for colored soldiers. The Neighbor- hood Union was drawn into this war-time activity; its organization can be considered typical and representative of Atlanta leadership. The city was divided into nine zones, each zone subdivided into neighbor- hood units. In each such unit various committees were appointed, whose leaders had to report to the city-wide committee and who were responsible for engendering grass-roots activity. Over 500 women were mobilized for this work within a short time, which speaks for the effectiveness of leadership."1 Obviously, the faculty wives of Morehouse and Spelman Colleges and of Atlanta University, many of them college-trained themselves, provided the leadership and the con- stant feedback with the college community. Sociologists and students were used to help with surveys, medical personnel were incorporated in the health work, and education leaders organized classes in the

community. It is difficult from the available record to estimate the exact number of activists, but they cannot have exceeded 100 at any given time. Yet during the various "drives" and campaigns several hundred neighborhood women were mobilized as canvassers, petition

circulators and organizers. To give a few examples:

11 "Plan of Work: Atlanta Colored Women's War Council", Neighborhood Union Papers, in Ibid., pp. 498-500.

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166 JOURNAL OF NEGRO HISTORY

The 1921 clean-up campaign was carried on by 83 women volun-

teers. It was organized by districts headed by captains. Each of 2500 homes was visited twice. Improvements made as a result of the cam- paign were dutifully recorded by the volunteers;

In one month activity in 1924 the Health committee reported that 217

home visits were made; six meetings held, 32,000 pieces of literature distributed and 16,000 people reached with educational material. Even allowing for some exaggeration on the part of reporters, it is obvious that such activities must have involved hundreds of neighborhood women;

During the depression of 1932 the Unemployment Relief Committee

numbered 200 active volunteers in addition to "regular workers." The Neighborhood Union of Atlanta, Georgia was for almost thirty

years under the leadership of Mrs. Lugenia Hope, wife of the president of Atlanta University. This dynamic leader, characteristic of her gen- eration, worked in a quiet, behind-the-scenes way. Yet her leadership spirit generated not only a remarkable local reform drive, but moved on to the national scene. Under her direction, Atlanta women had for some time been prodding white women in support of their cause. The first steps had been to involve white women in bettering the schools in the colored ghetto. The next, to prove that the black community sup- ported various white community campaigns such as Red Cross and Community Chest. The World War I activities of black women raised the issue of integration in the YWCA to a new level. Although the national YWCA had appointed its first "secretary for colored work", Eva Bowles, in 1913, and had, by 1920, increased its black national staff to 12, YWCA branches in all Southern cities operated on a strictly segregated basis. Workers in the black community, handpicked by local white boards and national colored secretaries from the national staff, were prevented by a tacit "hands-off policy on racial matters from working in the South. The result was a perpetuation and rein- forcement of segregation and discrimination within the YWCA. The issue came into the open over the assignment of a black field worker to work in the Atlanta black community. The Atlanta club leaders asked for the replacement of this field worker to whom they objected because they considered her unresponsive to their interests. They went on to demand the right to select their own staff. As one participant in this campaign put it, "the principle involved is not one . . . of policy, but the race question, pure and simple. The question is whether or not colored women can in some communities cooperate with white women

12 The summery of the work in the YWCA are based on a study of the YWCA Papers,

Smith College and of the YWCA Manuscript in the Neighborhood Union Papers. Some of these items are reprinted in Lerner (ed.), Black Women, pp. 477-489.

Quote: undated typescript. [Probably 1921]

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COMMUNITY WORK OF BLACK CLUB WOMEN 167

and at the same time keep their self-respect."''3 A skillfully orches- trated campaign, which was led by Mrs. Lugenia Hope, led the na- tional board to reverse its policy and set a precedent by asking black women to submit a slate of candidates they considered suitable for appointment. In 1921, as a direct outgrowth of this controversy, the YWCA national board appointed its first black member, Mrs. Char-

lotte Hawkins Brown.

Mrs. Hope and the Atlanta women continued their struggle against

discrimination by initiating efforts for an interracial meeting of black and white Southern club women as early as 1919. The meeting took place a year later at Tuskegee Institute and led to several decades of interracial cooperation among women in the fight against lynchings. By 1929, 805 interracial county committees were functioning in the South- ern states, obviously with varying degrees of effectiveness.'4

The work of black clubwomen contributed to the survival of the black community. Black women's clubs were, like the clubs of white women, led by educated, often by middle-class women, but unlike

their white counterparts, black club women frequently successfully bridged the class barrier and concerned themselves with issues of im- portance to poor women, working mothers, tenant farm wives. They were concerned with education, self and community improvement, but

they always strongly emphasized race pride and race advancement. Their inspiring example of self-help and persistent community service

deserves to be more closely studied by historians, especially those interested in urban history.

13 YWCA Manuscript, Box 5, Neighborhood Union Papers. 14 This summary based on a study of the papers of the Commission on Interracial

Cooperation, Atlanta, University of Atlanta. See also reprints from these papers in Lerner (ed.), Black Women . . ., pp. 461-467.

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