Most Invisible of All: Black Women's Voluntary Associations

Public Discourse, Community Concerns, and Civic Engagement: Exploring Black Social Networking Traditions on BlackPlanet.com

“…This community service orientation is not surprising, given that civic engagement and social action are longstanding traditions for black social networks (Davis, 1996). The Jack and Jill Club, developed in the 1930s to provide networking opportunities for middle and upper middle class children; the nine black Greek lettered fraternities and sororities that comprise the National Pan‐Hellenic Council founded in 1930; and The Links, a social club for African American women founded in 1946, among many others, were major contributors to efforts aimed at dismantling lynching and Jim Crow laws (Graham, 2000), as well as securing voting rights (Scott, 1990), educational parity (Partridge, 1974), and the other rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution (Rouse, 1984). While the context for racial justice in America has changed over the years, the commitment to community service by these social clubs and organizations has not.…”

Black Women in the United States and Unpaid Collective Work: Theorizing the Community as a Site of Production

“…During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Black women’s self-help activities included the creation of cooperative associations, fraternal orders, and benefit associations that provided needed services to Black community members. For example, middle-class Black women created the Atlanta Neighborhood Union in 1908 to collect data on community needs so that they could address problems of urban life that White city officials neglected for its Black residents: health services, day care, housing, recreation, and education (Scott, 1990). This is just one of the hundreds of associations that Black women formed and collectively operated throughout the country that provided vital services to community members.…”

Race and Equality in the Academy: Rethinking Higher Education Actors and the Struggle for Equality in the Post-World War II Period

“…Gerda Lerner, Darlene Clark Hine, and Anne Firor Scott have argued that many stories of African American women's clubs and organizations remain undocumented (Hine, 1990;Lerner, 1974;Scott, 1990). Each of these authors has written about the formation of social clubs and organizations by and for African American women during the 1800s (Hine, 1990;Lerner, 1974;Scott, 1990).…”

“…Each of these authors has written about the formation of social clubs and organizations by and for African American women during the 1800s (Hine, 1990;Lerner, 1974;Scott, 1990). But, there is limited research on the range and scope of educational activism among African American women's social service organizations such as the three examined in this case study, especially during the mid-twentieth century.…”