Radicals or Realists: African American Women and the Settlement House Spirit in New York City (1991)

Radicals or Realists: African American Women and Settlement House Spirit in New York CityIn spring of 1898, Victoria Earle Matthews, Superintendent of White Rose Mission, received a letter from Hattie Morehouse, a white teacher at Baylan Home for Colored Youth in Jacksonville, Florida asking Matthews to meet one of her students who was coming to New York in search of a job. Matthews arrived at Old Dominion pier at expected time, but could not find student who could be identified by a red ribbon in her lapel. Three days later, an extremely upset young woman arrived and told of having been lured away by employment agents. Matthews decided that something had to be done to help other female travelers avoid such distressing and demoralizings circumstances. She, therefore, devoted a large part of her settlement house activities to travelers aid work.(2)This paper will focus on several themes including role of black women in institution building; beginning of settlement houses in black communities, with emphasis on boarding facilities for migrant women; exploitation of black migrant women and efforts of black and white reformers to change circumstances. The paper is primarily concerned with two institutions, White Rose Mission in Harlem and Lincoln Settlement House in Brooklyn. Both institutions were managed and promoted by black women They were examples of self-help which filled special needs for black women migrating from South. Blacks began migrating from South in 1880s and movement gained momentum in 1920s. Between 1880 and 1910 an average of 6,500 blacks left South for employment in northern cities each year.(3) Many of these were women. Settlement houses like White Rose Home and Lincoln Settlement House attempted to deal with problems created by this explosion in population, especially in providing housing, education, child care, and employment assistance.Settlement houses for African Americans resembled similar institutions for European immigrants. The founders of black settlement houses displayed same spirit of social justice which was common to white reformers. Jane Adams Hull House in Chicago and University Settlement in New York City became spearheads of reform in Progressive era.(4) Both white and black reformers focused on practical objectives such as education and child care for working mothers. Settlement houses in general offered classes in reading or English, homemaking, sewing, music, art, and handicrafts. They established community literary clubs and libraries.(5)Blacks organized their own settlement houses partly because they were discriminated against by white settlement workers and because they wished to establish their own institutions. In a study of blacks and other ethnic groups in New York City, scholars claimed the Negro middle class contributes very little in money, organization, or involvement, to solution of Negro social problems. The authors did not emphasize historical contributions of blacks to tradition of institution building. African Americans, like other ethnic groups, were strongly motivated to create settlement houses and other institutions for their people. African American women included settlement houses as a vital part of their program of self-help and institution building.(6)The settlement house concept for blacks in north began with White Rose Mission which was founded by Victoria Matthews in 1897. This institution has a long history of social welfare service for African Americans in New York City. During its early years it functioned as a mission and social center for women and children in community. As number of women migrating to New York City increased, scope of Mission broadened. It offered lodging to southern migrant women, helped them adjust to city, and to develop skills necessary to survive in an urban environment. …