I have decided to start this blog in the same place that my research started. This post is going to spotlight a small selection of the prominent African American pioneers of social work and social justice.
When I first started to look for African American social workers and advocates of social justice, I started with a just a few names mentioned in the lesson given by the professor that first provoked my interest in this subject. I came across a great website titled The Social Welfare History Project and was delighted to see that not only did they have information about the people I was searching for, but they also had information about other African American social work and social justice pioneers. I am very pleased to have the opportunity to share these amazing people with you and encourage you to seek out more information about them and their many accomplishments.
All the pictures were found through Google Images and the information came from the Social Welfare History Project site.
Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)
Educator, Public Administrator, Civil Rights Activist
Daughter of former slaves * Head of the Division of African American Affairs within the National Youth Administration in 1936 * Advocated for the needs of African Americans during the Great Depression * Helped African Americans receive an equitable share of New Deal funding for African American education and employment * Attended Scotia Seminary for Negro Girls in Concord, North Carolina, then then Moody Bible School for Negro Girls in Chicago * 1904- Founded Daytona Educational and Industrial School for Negro Girls in Daytona Beach, FL which later became the Bethune-Cookman College * Led a group of African American women to vote in 1920 after the 19th amendment was ratified * Was the highest paid African American in the federal government * Was a leading member of President Roosevelt's "Black Cabinet" * First African American woman to have a monument in D.C.
Edward Franklin Frazier (1894-1962)
Advocate for Social Justice, Administrator, Author, Social Work Educator
Born into working class family in Baltimore, MD and was educated in segregated schools * Received a scholarship to Howard University where he received his bachelor's degree in 1916 * Taught in Southern Black schools * Received a scholarship to Clark University in Massachusetts where he earned a master's degree in sociology * Began to study social work after receiving a fellowship to the New York School of Social Work for the National Urban League * Worked as a professor of sociology at Morehouse College and was a Director of the Atlanta School of Social Work * Led efforts to get the Atlanta School of Social Work accredited * Was an outspoken, at times militant, activist against racism * He emphasized a need for a focus on social activism and worked for youth clubs, schools, and self-help groups for African Americans * Opposed WWI * His family was forced to leave Atlanta after receiving threats * First African American president of American Sociological Society
Dr. Dorothy Height (1912-2000)
Social Worker, Civil Rights Activist
Born in Richmond, VA * Lived in Pittsburgh, PA * Won $1,000 in an oratorical contest * Earned a B.S. in Education and a master's in Education Technology from NYU * Completed post-graduate studies at Columbia University and the New York School of Social Work * Best known for her leadership roles in YWCA and National Council of Negro Women * First director of Center for Racial Justice * Worked with Mary McLeod Bethune at NCNW, served as president from 1957-1998 * Was heavily involved in the civil rights movement in the 1960s through 1990s * Helped Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. organize and coordinate the March on Washington * Advocated for women's rights and employment worldwide * Did international work in India and South Africa and with the Women's Federation of the World Council of Churches * Received 24 honorary degrees and President Reagan presented her with the Citizens' Medal Award for Distinguished Service in 1989 * 2004- received the Congressional Gold Medal and was inducted into Democracy Hall of Fame International
Eugene Kinckle Jones (1885-1954)
Co-Founder of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraterity, Executive Secretary of Urban National League
His father was a former slave and his mother was a free Black, both were educators * 1906- Earned a graduate degree from Cornell University after switching his major from engineering to sociology * 1906- Was one of the 7 founders of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the first Black Greek letter organization * Had a M.A. in Sociology * Was a teacher * Was first field secretary of National Urban League until his retirement in 1941 * He led campaigns against barriers to African American employment * Also led boycotts against firms that refused to employ African Americans * Worked to expand vocational education for African Americans and greater roles for African Americans in labor unions * 1923- Helped launch Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life Magazine * 1924- Received honorary degree from Virginia Union University * 1933- Took a leave of absence from the National Urban League to work as a Department of Commerce Advisor of Negro Affairs * Was a member of President Roosevelt's "Black Cabinet"
Inabel Burns Lindsay (1916-1983)
Social Worker, Professor, First Dean of the Howard University School of Social Work
Was an Urban League fellow at the New York School of Social Work * Received her master's from the University of Chicago, School of Social Servive Admistration * 1937- Joined the Department of Sociology at Howard University as an instructor and an assistant in charge of social work * 1945- Was first Dean of the new school of social work at Howard University * 1952- Received her doctorate in social work from the University of Pittsburgh * Became a teacher then a family welfare practitioner, agency admistrator, and social researcher * 1967- She retired as the only female university academic dean in the DC area * Helped Howard University School of Social Work become the 2nd accredited school for African Americans
Janie Porter-Barrett (1865-1948)
Founder of Locust Street Settlement House, Social Welfare Advocate and Reformer
Mother was a former slave and father was unknown, but was thought to be a White man * Grew up with and was educated by a White family until attending the Hampton Institute * Worked as a teacher * Founded the Locust Street Settlement House in Hampton, VA in 1890 and based it on the Hull House * Involved in child placement activities * Founded the Virginia Industrial School for Colored Girls in 1915 * Believed in interracial cooperation * Founded the Virginia State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs * 1929- Received William E. Harman Award for Distinguished Achievement among Negroes
Whitney M. Young, Jr. (1921-1971)
Social Worker, Executive Director National Urban League, Civil Rights Advocate
Son of a Kentucky educator * Graduated from Kentucky State College and became a high school teacher and coach * Served in the Army from 1942-1944 and studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology * 1947- earned his MSW from the University of Minnesota and began working with the Urban League * 1950- executive secretary of Urban League in Omaha, NE, taught social work at the University of Nebraska and Creighton University * 1954- Became Dean of Atlanta University School of Social Work * 1961- executive director of National Urban League until his drowning death in 1971 * 1965- President of National Conference on Social Welfare * 1969- President of the National Association of Social Workers * 1969- Medal of Freedom for civil rights accomplishments * 1969- Wrote "Beyond Racism: Building an Open Society" * Received many honorary degrees and awards * Worked on many national boards and advisory committees * Worked to eradicate discrimination against African Americans and poor people * 1993- elected NASW Social Work Pioneer
I hope you have enjoyed this sampler of great African American social work and social justice pioneers. In future blog posts, I hope to show you even more of what the African American community contributed to our nation's social work and social justice history.
I like how well orgainzed and detail your work is. Your pictures and information of the social work figures show your research and creativity. Since I'm a social work major, theses figures are familiar to me, however; you explained the African American social workers very well. It is very educational and with strong facts
ReplyDeleteI like how this blog is both historical and educational. I like how it spotlights individual
ReplyDeleteAfrican Americans that influenced social work. This is a very organized blog post and I think your topic was creative and interesting to read.
Thanks, ladies! I'm really looking forward to learning more about this subject. This assignment is the perfect excuse!
ReplyDeleteYour blog gives insight to a topic that is often overlooked. It seems that when you hear social welfare, you always think of, " oh some rich white dude somewhere created this to help poor people, blah blah blah". The reality however is much different after reading your post and all of the influential people that were involved you can see that social welfare was pioneered by a lot of African Americans. Its sad because so many of these people go unrecognized but they are extremely influential not only in their own communities and among African Americans, but also were influential in establishing the framework in which social work was established upon. I like this post a lot, it gave a insight to something that we here about; social work and welfare, everyone knows about this topic, but the people who were involved you never learn about. This showed me those who are behind such a great thing and how much little recognition they actual received. Great post, I would d follow this blog. I'm curious, was social work set up based on race? Was there a division on help based on your race? I'm curious about this.
ReplyDeleteHi Katie! It's not so much that social work was intentially set up by race, as much as it was just as racially segregated as everything else at the time. I have to say that it really surprised me to learn that because I assumed that social workers would have always been eager to help people of any race. But when reading a book about a woman that is considered to be one of the mothers of social work, I learned that when people just like the ones I wrote about here approached her about helping the African American community, she turned them down because she didnt think it was a priority! In her later years, she changed her mind about this and did end up being a champion of African American rights, but to learn it wasn't like that all along was a bit shocking. As far as I have learned so far, there was a parallel African American social welfare movement moving alongside the White social welfare movement. Crazy, huh?
ReplyDeleteYea, that is amazing but at the same time sad. I didn't think there would be such a division in something like social welfare but at the same time this was a shameful time in American history where it seems that people though in this small mind sets. So do you know when the efforts were actual collaborated and became one collective social welfare system? An when it did, what was the determining factors for who actually received and who didn't? Sorry your blog is really interesting and im curious to learn more, don't go out of your way to answer those questions but if you have more information that could answer those questions that would be awesome. It seem that this topic isn't really discussed in history in school, its like totally overlooked so i'm really curious to learn more. Maybe your could post those answers in your next blog. Thanks :) Great job!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE that you are asking questions because it's making me think beyond just writing this blog for a class assignment! I am really interested in this topic and your questions are great.
DeleteI actually don't really know the answer to your question, lol. I've only just started researching the history of social work in general. The book I read about one of the women considered the mother of social work (the one I referenced in my previous answer) did talk about how she eventually realized that leaving Blacks out of the social reform movement was wrong, but I am not sure when a general acceptance of Blacks began. One could possibly argue that the civil rights movement itself included a fight for inclusion in social reform. But it is an interesting topic, I agree.
If I can find more info about it, I'd love to use that topic as my final blog. So we'll see what I can find!
Thanks for asking questions, Katie. You are making me think!!
Yea, i really enjoy your blog to, it makes me think. The reason that I am asking that question is because this topic is or has went with out much notification, you never hear of the situation or where the roots come from or anything. I liked the approach in which you are taking by first informing the reader of those who were so involved and then going further to discuss the actual creation and roots, socially. i was also curious of how the church played a role in the African American social work? Was the white community of social works completely ignoring the African american community and did religion play a role in the actual collaboration of the African american and white social working groups. I'm curious and ask about the role of the church because a lot of history following the civil war and the rights African Americans were fighting so vigorous for was based on their faith. So my question is what is the role of the church is establishing social work in general?
ReplyDeleteOh, man! I just saw this question. Now I wish I was continuing the blog because post 4 was going to be a two-parter where the second part was all about the role church played in the relationship between Blacks and the White reformers.
DeleteHere is the basic jist. Some of the White reformers actually saw the Black church as a reason that Blacks were in the trouble they were. They felt that the church encouraged laziness and a focus on social activities- not the moral education Blacks so desperately needed (in their eyes, Blacks wouldn't be deserving of their services until they rose to the status of merely humans to men). Whites were actually able to deny helping Blacks through their churches by declaring that their work through settlement houses was superior to the work being done by the Black churches in the community. The short answer is that White reformers looked down on Black churches in much the same way that they looked down on the Blacks themselves.
Sad, huh?