Good morning POU family! This week’s morning threads will highlight the Women’s Club movement and members.
Even before African Americans were freed from slavery, black women had started to come together to create organizations that looked after their community’s welfare. Black women were very quick to “organize themselves for self-help”. One of the first African-American women’s club was the Female Benevolent Society of St. Thomas, in Philadelphia, which was started in 1793. At the time, Philadelphia had numerous black organizations. After the African Benevolent Society in Newport, Rhode Island would not allow women to be officers or vote, women created their own group. Another group, the Colored Female Religious and Moral Society in Salem, Massachusetts was created in 1818. Black women’s clubs helped raise money for the anti-slavery newspaper The North Star. Many black churches owed their existence to the dedicated work of African-American women organizing in their communities. Black women’s literary clubs began to show up as early as 1831, with the Female Literary Society of Philadelphia.
After slavery was ended in the United States with the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865, black women continued to organize and often worked with churches to ensure their communities were taken care of. Many of these organizations were “so resilient that they were able to survive the twin disasters of bank failure and yellow fever”. In 1868, black women’s clubs were formed in Harris County, Texas. Between 1880 and 1920, black women in Indianapolis, Indiana had created more than 500 clubs addressing various issues.
During the Progressive era, many black women migrated to the Northern United States and into more urban areas. The club movement for black women in the 1890s began to focus on “social and political reform” and was more secular. Black women had to face the same issues as white women during this period but were often excluded from services and help that benefited whites only. Black women were not only excluded from white clubs but also were often excluded from clubs created by black men. In addition, many black women felt as though they were defying stereotypes for their community. Woman’s clubs allowed black women to combat the period’s stereotypes which “portrayed African American women as devoid of morality, sexually wanton and incapable of upholding marital and family responsibilities”. Being a member of a woman’s club also helped give black women greater social standing in their communities.
Black colleges helped the creation of African-American women’s clubs. Ida B. Wells was an important figure in the growth of these clubs during the Progressive Era. Several clubs, named after her, were created in large cities across the country. Other influential woman’s club organizers were Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and Mary Church Terrell. In 1896, the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) was founded. The NACW grew out of anti-lynching campaigns spearheaded by Wells. Well’s anti-lynching campaign provoked the president of the Missouri Press Association who viciously attacked black women in a letter that was widely circulated among women’s clubs by Ruffin. Ruffin eventually helped bring together the NACW, using the letter as a “call to action”.
Both black and white women were involved in creating the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909 and were often involved in much of the organization’s local work. By 1900, almost every black community had a women’s club. By 1910, in proportion to population size, African-American women’s clubs outpaced white women’s clubs in the number of clubs created. By 1914, the NACW had fifty-thousand members and over a thousand clubs participating in the umbrella organization. Black women wanted to be visible and NACW helped them organize to improve conditions in their communities. There were also many African-American versions of the WCTU and the YWCA.
The NACW raised more than $5 million in war bonds during World War I. The Woman’s Club of Norfolk wrote letters and sent care packages to the segregated black units sent to fight overseas. During the Great Depression, black women’s clubs began to move towards “structural change and electoral politics”. The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) became a dominant group in the women’s club movement in African-American circles. After World War II, working-class and poor black women took the place of upper-class black women in organizing communities.
Tomorrow’s post will highlight a member.