So What Now?

Goooood question.

I had originally intended my previous post to be a two-parter, but as I began my research for it I realized that was not going to end up being what happened. This post is going to be about what my future plans are for this blog, and my research on this topic.

***************

In the Beginning

     When I first started researching the history of Black social work, I went into it knowing there would not be many resources from which I could draw information. This was not a surprise to me, as the Black history of pretty much anything is usually pretty under-researched. I had also been warned by one of my social work professors that this would be the case. So I would say I started researching this topic with a pretty good idea of what I would find. I had originally planned to make a poster about some of the major pioneers of Black social work and social justice and that research later became the basis for my first post. Then I thought that a blog would be a great vehicle for sharing the information I found with others that were interested in this topic. However, as the semester drew to a close and I reflected on the work I had completed, I felt that I had not done the topic justice. I felt that I had barely scratched the surface of what the history of Black social work really entailed. This was when the first doubts of continuing the blog after the end of the semester first appeared.

Disappointment

     My decision about what to do with the blog was set in stone as I began my research for my most recent post. I had known that the Black history of social work was not going to be a tale of sunshine and rainbows, but I was still surprised by the material that I was reading. I as read the literature, my heart began to break. Why? Because the very people I had spent this entire school year admiring for their devotion to advocating for justice and equality for all were, in fact, advocating for justice and equality for all....as long the people in question were White. 
     I know enough about our country's history with racism and oppression to know what life was like for Blacks living in the early 20th century. What I did not know is that the very people at the forefront of social reform in those days were just as likely to oppress Blacks, to see them as lesser people, to believe in segregation of races, and to even take their services elsewhere when confronted with an influx of Blacks into their neighborhoods. I had a hard time finishing my research on this topic once this became apparent, but I finished it nonetheless.

My Decision

     I am going to be deleting the blog after the semester is over. While it was a great starting point for me to began to research the subject of the history of Black social work, I think I can tell a better story. I also think I need to dig deeper into the literature, even if that means reading articles from well over 100 years ago. My research has shown me how little I know about this subject and it has also shown me that this is due to a lack of effort on the part of social work scholars to tell this part of the story. While I do not see myself writing a book on the subject or anything, I think I owe those who came before me the chance to have their stories told. So I am going to find those stories as well as a way to tell them. A blog may be the method I chose in the end or maybe it will be a paper of some sort. Only time will tell, I suppose. What I do know is that this story is bigger than I realized and might be too big for this particular blog.

Farewell

     So with that, I will say good-bye and thank you. Thank you to those that read my blog and especially to those that took the time to comment. I appreciate the desire others have to learn more about this important part of social work history and I hope to be able to tell you an even better story in the future.

     

***************

If you feel so inclined, please leave a comment letting me know what types of things I should make sure to include in my research. What questions has this blog left you with? What answers do you hope I will find? Where do you think this story needs to go?

Thanks again, all. I wish you all the best in the future.

Justice and Equality for All (Whites)

The social work movement seems like it would be the least likely place to find racism and oppression. If only this were the case...

************

The Settlement House Movement

     A settlement house was basically a community center run by volunteers that was located in a run-down, poor area of the city. The purpose of the settlement house was to help poor immigrants that were new to the country learn how to succeed in an industrial society. Activities in the settlement were mainly run by middle- to upper-class White women and included a mix of social services, education, cultural program, vocational training, recreation, and entertainment. The house itself often served as a daycare, bathhouse, school, soup kitchen, employment office, and salon. 

     While many settlement founders spoke of equality, mutual respect, and social change, it turns out that these concepts were not to apply to Blacks.

 

Exclusion

     So how is it that movement dedicated to justice and equality denied these rights to Blacks? Some researchers say it was due to racism on the part of the settlement house founders while others say the settlement founders were just trying to maintain social control over the classes (in an attempt to ensure their security of their place in the middle class). Either way, there was a definitive lack of support for poor Blacks by White reformers.

     As Blacks migrated North in search of a better life, they often found themselves moving the run-down areas of town, right in the middle of the settlements. As Blacks moved in, Whites moved out, not wanting to live in the same neighborhood as the Blacks. Attendance at settlement house activities began to dwindle as Whites refused to come to area now inhabited by Blacks. Instead of welcoming the Black communities, the settlement founders refused to allow Blacks to use their facilities; allowed Blacks, but kept them separate from the Whites; or closed up shop and moved the settlement elsewhere. 

     Surprisingly, this exclusion from the settlement movement came about because of the way the settlement founders viewed Blacks. Even the most liberal and inclusive of settlement workers did not believe that the settlements were the right place for Blacks. Some of the views held by these settlement workers included: Black families were weak; Blacks lacked motivation; Blacks do not resent segregation; Blacks lacked morals and Whites were their moral superiors; the ways of the South promoted criminality in Blacks; Blacks were ignorant to the ways of domestic life; Blacks were incapable of staying clean and healthy without the intervention of the wiser Whites; Blacks were without character; Blacks did not want to be equal to Whites, they just wanted to be better Blacks; Blacks were made too comfortable during slavery and now wanted to avoid work; Blacks could not assimilate to the White culture because they needed so much self-improvement; and that Blacks should help other Blacks without the help of Whites. 

An Exception to the Rule

Mary White Ovington

     Mary White Ovington, a worker at a settlement house in New York City, had been brought up to be sensitive to the issue of race by her abolitionist parents. However it was not until she attended a lecture by Booker T. Washington that she realized her belief that Reconstruction had left Blacks in better circumstances was completely off the mark. Just six years later, she helped organize a conference to address the fact that Blacks were not being subjected to unacceptable conditions because they were uncultured and uncivilized, but because they were being treated as "half a man". The platform developed during this conference later became the basis of the organization now known as the NAACP. 

     Not long after attending his speech, Ovington became good friends with Washington and they remained friends for the next thirty years. Mary explained to Washington that she wanted to use her experience as a settlement worker to bring social work to the Black community. She wrote to him of her plans to found an interracial settlement, but knew that she faced an uphill battle. She believed that both races should work together as equals to run the settlement, saying that the racial isolation caused by segregation could be the reason race relations were so bad in the South. 

     Her plan was to have two White and two Black workers at the settlement, while populating the settlement itself with only Blacks. However, in the end, she was the only White person willing to live among the Blacks in the settlement and the staff was never integrated. 

     Ovington felt that it was her sex that kept her from succeeding in the way she had hoped. She found that it was hard to be taken seriously and that at times her presence at events could do more harm than good. There were times that newspapers would write horrible and untrue things about her simply because she was seen being friendly to a Black man.

     Sadly, despite the interest of Ovington and those like her, settlement houses were never truly racially integrated. 

What If?

     What if African Americans had been included in the settlement house movement? What if the White reformers had willingly taken up the cause of the Blacks and worked to secure their equal rights with the same passion they had for European immigrants? What if the fight against racism had started 50-60 years earlier than it did? What if there had been two more generations of Blacks empowered to succeed with the help of social services? What if Blacks had not needed to fight poverty and inequality without interracial cooperation? What if these pioneering White reformers had not seen Blacks as inferior beings unworthy of their advocacy?

What would the life of the Black community look like today? 

************

What do you think readers? Are you surprised to learn that a movement advocating justice and equality for all excluded an entire race of people? What do you think about how these White reformers handle the issue of race in the settlements? What lasting effects do you think this had on the future of the African American community?