The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Fall 12-1-2015 Building Within Our Borders: Black Women Reformers in the South from 1890 to 1920 Tonya D. Blair University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the American Studies Commons, Women's History Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Blair, Tonya D., "Building Within Our Borders: Black Women Reformers in the South from 1890 to 1920" (2015). Dissertations. 188. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/188 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi BUILDING WITHIN OUR BORDERS: BLACK WOMEN REFORMERS IN THE SOUTH FROM 1890 TO 1920 by Tonya Dé Neé Blair Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2015 ABSTRACT BUILDING WITHIN OUR BORDERS: BLACK WOMEN REFORMERS IN THE SOUTH FROM 1890 TO 1920 by Tonya Dé Neé Blair December 2015 This dissertation examined the reform work of four unsung black women reformers in Virginia from the post-Reconstruction period into the early twentieth century. The four women spearheaded social reformist institutions and organizations, such as industrial training schools, a settlement house, an orphanage, a home for the elderly, a girls’ reformatory/industrial school, and a state federation of black women’s clubs.