1. Surviving Jim Crow

2. The Black Family 75% of households with children had two parents.
Many households were multi-generational
Families living in rural areas had strong kinship networks
The family was especially important in the countryside
Extended families . . .
provided economic support
offered psychological comfort
helped keep alive cultural traditions and family history

3. Women as Heads of Household
Black families were often headed by women
More than white families
Why were so many families headed by women?
Men out looking for work
Higher mortality rate among Blacks,
Higher proportion of Blacks in prison
The result of Jim Crow justice
The criminalization of Black behavior
Desperation born of poverty

4. Rural black families
In the rural South families were particularly important as economic units
Farm work required the labor of all available hands
Some Black men didn’t want their wives working in the fields
Women maintained the house and did the bookkeeping

5. black women in the cities
In the cities black women worked outside the home
Before AND after marriage
About 3/4 of single black women worked
About 1/3 of married black women worked
Domestics, laundresses unskilled workers.
Middle class black women
Worked as teachers and white collar professions
Or remained at home and kept house

6. The Black Church The majority of Blacks were Baptists and Methodists
Black churches reflected class differences
Some churches catered to the working class
Some churches catered to the Black elite
Teachers, ministers, businessmen, lawyers & doctors
People took pride in belonging to an elite church
Some elites joined “prestigious” denominations
Congregational, Episcopalian, & Presbyterian

7. Working-Class services
Working-class Baptist and Methodist church services
Combined African and European forms of religious expression
It reflected anguish, pain, and occasional elation
Prayer, singing, and the minister's sermon.
EVERYONE sang -- congregation and choir
Call and response

8. Elite black services Elite Blacks preferred churches that had . . .
educated preachers
learned sermons
tasteful, dignified services

9. Churches filled many roles in the black community
Black churches also functioned as . . .
Social centers
“Governments”
Churches in the Black Community . . .
Ran schools
Organized orphanages
Establishing hospitals
Providing a variety of relief services.

10. fraternal orders and mutual benefit societies
Organizations were often affiliated with Black churches
The Free African Society of Philadelphia, est. in 1787
The first voluntary associations of blacks
After the Civil War, many more national societies emerged:
The Black Masons – The Eastern Stars
The Odd Fellows
The Elks
The Grand United Order of True Reformers
Societies and churches often shared members

11. mutual benefit societies
Mutual Benefit Societies provide African Americans with . . .
A place to socialize
A place to make social and business contacts – networking
Low-cost burial insurance
Mutual Benefit Societies performed charitable work
A spawning ground for black-run businesses
North Carolina Mutual
Atlanta Life

12. Atlanta’s “Sweet Auburn” district
Black-owned businesses enriched Black communities.
“Sweet Auburn” district in northeast Atlanta
“The richest Negro street in the world.”
Atlanta Life Insurance
WERD – 1st first Black-owned commercial radio station
Street where Martin Luther King, Jr. grew up
Home of the Ebenezer Baptist Church

13. Durham, North Carolina North Carolina Mutual helped the city prosper
“The Capital of the Black Middle Class”
A black-owned commercial bank
A black-owned savings and loan institution
A black-owned fire insurance company
A black-owned cotton mill

14. A Emergence of a Black Elite
A black elite emerges
Southern cities by the 1880s
“The black bourgeoisie”
Within the Black community, they led
fraternal organizations
political rallies
business ventures
social gatherings

15. Middle-Class Reformers
The Black Middle-class blacks helped poor blacks
The Middle Class offered services in black neighborhoods
Black women's clubs . . .
Lobbied governments to provide more social services
Provided privately funded support for social services
Atlanta Neighborhood Union (est. 1908)
Built playgrounds
Conducted cleanup campaigns
Established a healthcare center

16. The Progressive Movement
A middle-class reform movement
Working to fix problems caused by rapid industrialization
Black progressives followed examples of white progressives
Organize
Work to improve the community.

17. The NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Founded in 1909 by Blacks and whites Their mission was to ✔ advance the Civil Rights of African Americans ✔ end discrimination in the workplace ✔ overturn Jim Crow Used legal challenges to accomplish their mission W.E.B. DuBois -- a founding member

18. Black Progressives Blacks Progressives worked to improve education
Black middle class campaigned against ...
alcohol – use and abuse – prohibition
prostitution
gambling
Other forms of vice in black neighborhoods.
Some working-class Blacks don’t like these crusades
See them as “self-righteous moralism.”
Caused greater class divisions among blacks