Pushing Against Jim Crow The Amazing Worlds Of African American Fraternal Orders
2023-04-25
Title
Pushing Against Jim Crow The Amazing Worlds Of African American Fraternal Orders
Alternative title
Authors
Published Date
2023-04-25
Publisher
Type
Audio
Abstract
Keywords
Description
From the 1800s through the middle of the 2Oth century, federated fraternal orders based in regularly meeting local lodges and supralocal headquarters and conventions allowed Americans of all backgrounds to combine for mutual aid and civic assertion. African Americans were super-organizers and joiners within this fraternal world. Forming federations that spanned states, regions, and often the nation as a whole, Blacks created some orders paralleling major white orders but also large numbers of their own distinctively named orders. Through these orders, they built economic security, worked for social advancement, and pushed back against the social exclusions, cultural insults, and political restrictions of Jim Crow segregation. Women played a much stronger role in African American “fraternalism” than in white variants, and Black orders had an unusually strong focus on community service, while also serving as an organizational sphere where individual male and female leaders could develop and display business and civic talent.
Professor Theda Skocpol presents original research - including membership badges from Black fraternal orders - connecting mutual-aid associations in the South with the Civil Rights movement. This talk includes personal stories of amazing discoveries, along with a larger explanation of why these associations, most of them no longer with us, are an inspiring part of U.S. and African American history that must not be lost.
Related to
Replaces
License
Collections
Series/Report Number
Funding information
Isbn identifier
Doi identifier
Previously Published Citation
Other identifiers
Suggested citation
Logan, Enid; Skocpol, Theda. (2023). Pushing Against Jim Crow The Amazing Worlds Of African American Fraternal Orders. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/268997.
Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.