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"To End This Day of Strife": Churchwomen and the Campaign for Integration, 1920-1970

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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2001 "To End This Day of Strife": Churchwomen and the Campaign for Integration, 1920-1970 Janine Marie Denomme University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the American Politics Commons, American Studies Commons, Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Cultural History Commons, History of Religion Commons, Other Religion Commons, Political History Commons, Social History Commons, United States History Commons, and the Women's History Commons Recommended Citation Denomme, Janine Marie, ""To End This Day of Strife": Churchwomen and the Campaign for Integration, 1920-1970" (2001). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1536. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1536 This dissertation was received through the American Civilization department, which no longer exists. This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1536 For more information, please contact [email protected]. "To End This Day of Strife": Churchwomen and the Campaign for Integration, 1920-1970 Abstract "'To End This Day of Strife': Churchwomen and the Campaign for Integration, 1920-1970," explores the development and significance of a acer relations agenda within a national interdenominational and interracial organization of women, known today as Church Women United (CWU). This project examines the role the organization played in the expansion of a moral language of race that reached across region, race and denomination. The keys to this expansion were twofold: First, the participation of African American churchwomen in the organization from its beginnings stimulated dialogue and action; and second, the missionary legacy of white churchwomen, which, despite its initial imperialist assumptions, introduced churchwomen to a religious idiom and intellectual experience that embraced cultural diversity. Black churchwomen pursued membership in CWU as a potential avenue to a more fully integrated American society. As they did, they challenged white churchwomen to take moral responsibility for race relations and supplanted the prominent black stereotypes held by white America. Using primarily the organization's national papers housed at the General Commission on Archives and History at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey, this project contributes to recent scholarship on the civil rights movement. It explores the more intimate aspects of its unknown players and expands the periodization of the struggle as well as the limited literature on women's role in the movement. "To End this Day of Strife" examines the multiple interpretations of racial integration for various groups of citizens. In particular, it considers the moments when white and African American churchwomen's pursuit of racial integration conflicted and coalesced with each other. The participation by CWU in the antecedents of as well as what is considered the actual civil rights movement provides a valuable context to understand better the place of religion in twentieth century American history. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History First Advisor Kathleen M. Brown Second Advisor Thomas Sugrue Keywords churchwomen, integration, civil rights movement Subject Categories American Politics | American Studies | Civil Rights and Discrimination | Cultural History | History of Religion | Other Religion | Political History | Social History | United States History | Women's History Comments This dissertation was received through the American Civilization department, which no longer exists. This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1536 “TO END THIS DAY OF STRIFE”: CHURCHWOMEN AND THE CAMPAIGN FOR INTEGRATION, 1920-1970 Janine Marie Denomme A DISSERTATION in American Civilization Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2001 Supervisor of Dissertation . Supervisor of Dissertation Graduate Group Chairpei Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. COPYRIGHT Janine Marie Denomme 2001 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgments Many academics, including myself, have described the years of writing one’s dissertation, at least in part, in terms that include isolation. The realization that there is no blueprint to follow, no exact formula and no direct path to the conclusion of one’s research, can be experienced with profound angst. Those days when the pages seem to write themselves have been interspersed with just as many days (if not more) of peering at an empty screen and begging for inspiration from a scholarly muse. Those glorious moments when a light bulb goes on, the planets align and another chapter comes to an end often seem distant and too few. On the other hand, although this section of the dissertation is “optional” according to Penn's Dissertation Manual, it is in no way optional for me. Many individuals and institutions have consistently reminded me that I do not work in isolation. Time and again, if I simply reached for the phone or sent a quick plea over the electronic airwaves, calling on someone for help, I was met with kindness, support, encouragement and, on those really good days, a hot meal. It is far too easy to focus on the difficulties involved in such a project as this one but entirely necessary to thank the many people who had a hand in the completion of this work. I shall begin by thanking my advisors who adopted me unofficially into the History Department at Penn when the AmCiv program was flailing. To Kathy Brown and Tom Sugrue, thank you for your hours of reading, editing, advising and cajoling. I have appreciated our conversations about my research and writing and your willingness to work with me across the miles. I know for certain that my thinking and writing has iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. benefited profoundly because of your input. Kathy, I thank you for your personal support as well. I have often thought of you as a midwife as you coached me through this “birthing process.” I will always be grateful to you. Thanks also go to Drew Gilpin Faust for her willingness to work with me despite the many demands upon her. I must also add that I have had the wonderful honor to have taught for Tom, Kathy and Drew. All three have gifted me with superb models of teaching - both in and outside the classroom. I aspire to impact my students as much as they do. Last but not least, I would like to thank Barbara Savage who has also accompanied me on this journey. I want to profusely thank Mel Hammarberg who, as the chair of the AmCiv program at Penn, has seen me through until the end. In the midst of a collapsing program, Mel has fought for funding to ensure that the last of us finish our degrees. To him and to the University of Pennsylvania, I thank for the financial support including dissertation fellowships. In addition, many thanks go to Deborah Broadnax who has always watched out for me administratively, ensuring that my paper work was in order. This has been especially true since I moved back to Chicago and did not have easy access to the administrative offices on campus. Important credit must go to two women who have made the papers of Church Women United (CWU) available for scholarly use. Dodie Younger and Jane Burton, both former staff members for CWU, have spent the past ten-plus years of their lives organizing boxes and boxes (and boxes) of papers dating back to the turn of the twentieth century. The fact that they were lay-archivists and were working part time did not deter them from climbing what must have seemed like a mountain of papers. The result is a fantastic iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. collection housed at the General Commission on Archives and History, the United Methodist Church at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey. The collection is wonderful not only for the purposes for which I have used it but also in regards to the ecumenical movement including the World Council of Churches, women’s work in the church including the institutional obstacles inhibiting them and women’s missionary- related causes. I urge scholars to take a look at the fruit of their work. Dodie and Jane would also. I'm sure, give tribute to the archivists at Drew University for their willingness to house the papers as well as their assistance in cataloguing the collection. I too am most appreciative of the substantial assistance I received at Drew in my many trips there. I would especially like to thank Kristen Turner, an archivist at Drew when I began, and Mark Shenise. Thank you Kristen (my pen pal!) for your scholarly assistance as well as your friendship that continued after you left Drew. Thanks also to the many other librarians and archivists who have assisted me in my research. These institutions include the University of Pennsylvania Van Pelt Library, Garrett Theological Seminary Library, the Presbyterian Historical Society, the Chicago Historical Society, the Detroit Public Library, the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House and the National Council of Negro Women archives in Washington D.C., the Bentley Library at the University of Michigan, the Indianapolis Historical Society, the National YWCA archives in NYC, and the Englewood Library, Englewood, New Jersey. Thanks also to the Rochester, New York and Evanston, Illinois offices of CWU for allowing me to sift through their papers housed on their premises. The generosity of these many people and institutions has made this project possible. v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. In addition to my committee members who read my dissertation, I am very grateful to those people who have read bits and pieces of it along the way.
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