page_title: Kate Waller Barrett
section_title: Race and class in Florence Crittenton homes
hierarchical_section_title: Kate Waller Barrett / National Florence Crittenton Mission / Race and class in Florence Crittenton homes
caption_attribution_description: English: Front entrance of Florence Crittenton Home, located at 19 St. Margaret Street in Charleston, South Carolina. The building is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
context_page_description: Kate Waller Barrett, née Katherine Harwood Waller, was a prominent Virginia physician, humanitarian, philanthropist, sociologist and social reformer, best known for her leadership of the National Florence Crittenton Mission, which she founded in 1895 with Charles Nelson Crittenton. Her causes included helping the "outcast woman, the mistreated prisoner, those lacking in educational and social opportunity, the voteless woman, and the disabled war veteran." Although comparatively little known today, she was "[o]ne of the most prominent women of her time".
context_section_description: For a woman born into a slave-holding family, Barrett put considerable effort into addressing the racial issues inherent in the work of the NFCM. Noting Barrett's background and that her era corresponded with the institutionalization of Jim Crow throughout the South, historian Katherine G. Aiken concludes that "[w]ithin this context, the NFCM made pathbreaking overtures to the African American community." Aiken observes that under Barrett, the NFCM operated a "colored mission" in Alexandria, Virginia, with not only its inmates but all of its workers being Black. Similarly, the NFCM welcomed the Topeka Home (Colored), founded by Topeka Blacks in 1904, when they later petitioned to join NFCM. Not only did Barrett accept the Topeka home, but she arranged for the NFCM to pay off the home's sizeable remaining mortgage, and ensured that its leader, Sarah Malone, was included within the NFCM leadership.
  Barrett fostered important relationships with African American women.... At a time when few white organizations interacted with black women, Barrett facilitated the efforts of middle-class African American women to engage in rescue and maternity home work... The FC approach was neither revolutionary nor radical, and both white and black Crittenton workers failed to confront or challenge predominant views of race. At the same time, the Crittenton organization made inroads against racism that deserve to be recognized.
  Barrett was perhaps less successful in leading Florence Crittenton workers on the class divisions that crept into their work. While unwed mothers were hardly restricted at the time to the working class, middle-class and wealthy women had access to resources that could shield them from censure. As a result, Florence Crittenton work has been  characterized as mostly middle-class people "meddling" in working class lives "in an effort to bring about a well-ordered society." Katherine Aiken thinks this characterization is too sweeping and that it misses the genuine caring that Florence Crittenton workers brought to their work, identifying as women and mothers with their sister "unfortunate girls". Aiken summarizes her conclusions by agreeing with critics that "middle-class Crittenton workers sometimes forced their own values and life-style upon women of another class... [and] [t]hese actions sometimes resulted in negative effects on the women involved. Nevertheless, Crittenton homes served a purpose and filled a void that provided a real service to women enduring considerable personal turmoil."
caption: The entrance to the Florence Crittenton Home of Charleston, South Carolina
exif: {"Image Make": "Panasonic", "Image Model": "DMC-FZ20", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer 6.1.7600.16385", "Image DateTime": "2011:09:07 16:03:09", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2476", "Image PrintIM": "[80, 114, 105, 110, 116, 73, 77, 0, 48, 50, 53, 48, 0, 0, 14, 0, 1, 0, 22, 0, ... ]", "Image Padding": "[]", "Image OffsetSchema": "3986", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/80", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2011:09:07 08:50:08", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2011:09:07 08:50:08", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "6", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1920", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2560", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "36", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}