Black Women Reformers in the South from 1890 to 1920

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. One of the selected women included Jennie Dean, a former slave from northern Virginia, who founded an industrial training school for African-Americans in post-Civil War Manassas. Dean’s industrial school resulted from her tenacious drive to imbue former slaves with literacy and vocational skills. The second woman was Della Irving Hayden, an 1877 graduate of Hampton Institute, who founded the Franklin Normal and Industrial Institute in 1904. The third woman was Janie Porter Barrett, an 1884 graduate of Hampton Institute, who established the Locust Street Settlement House in Hampton, as well as the state’s first reformatory/industrial school for delinquent black girls. The fourth woman, Amelia Perry Pride, an 1885 graduate of Hampton Institute, established a home for the elderly, an orphanage, and a cooking/sewing school, all of which served Lynchburg’s black community. Although Jennie Dean is the only one of the four women who did not attend Hampton Institute, she, like Hayden, Barrett, and Pride, took strong inspiration from the ii Hampton Model as designed by the school’s founder, Samuel Chapman Armstrong. While the model placed primary emphasis on a vocational/industrial curriculum, it also stressed the virtues of piety, thrift, hard work, racial uplift, and self-sufficiency. Due to its all-encompassing components, which provided a logical and practical resolution to post- Reconstruction black southern plight, reformers such as the dissertation’s four women integrated the Hampton Model into their reformist objectives and initiatives. iii COPYRIGHT BY TONYA DÉ NEÉ BLAIR 2015 BUILDING WITHIN OUR BORDERS: BLACK WOMEN REFORMERS IN THE SOUTH FROM 1890 TO 1920 by Tonya Dé Neé Blair A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School and the Department of History at The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved: ________________________________________________ Dr. Douglas Chambers, Committee Chair Associate Professor, History ________________________________________________ Dr. Pamela Tyler, Committee Member Associate Professor, History ________________________________________________ Dr. Chester Morgan, Committee Member Professor, History ________________________________________________ Dr. Deanne Nuwer, Committee Member Associate Professor, History ________________________________________________ Dr. Matthew Casey, Committee Member Assistant Professor, History ________________________________________________ Dr. Karen S. Coats Dean of the Graduate School December 2015 DEDICATION While my doctoral process has been a long road of individual sacrifice, hard work, tenacity, and dedication, its completion yields forth a sense of accomplishment and ease. I share this triumphant feeling and moment in my life with my family and colleagues, all of whom offered me support and encouragement throughout this process. I would also like to extend a special dedication to my late grandmother, Mrs. Essie M. Blair, whose passion for higher learning kept me focused on completing the degree. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to extend special thanks to my committee chair, Dr. Douglas Chambers, and my other committee members, Dr. Pamela Tyler, Dr. Chester Morgan, Dr. Deanne Nuwer, and Dr. Matthew Casey, for their dedicated review of my dissertation. I would also like to extend special thanks to the staff of the Graduate School at The University of Southern Mississippi for all of the years of support and encouragement. Additionally, I would also like to thank my former colleagues at Elizabeth City State University for their support and encouragement. Lastly, I would like to thank the staff members of the following repositories who invaluably aided my research: Hampton University, Old City Cemetery, The Library of Virginia, and the Manassas Museum. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii DEDICATION ................................................................................................................... iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...................................................................................................v CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................1 II. THE BASIS FOR BUILDING: PROGRESSIVISM AND THE AMERICAN SOUTH ...............................................................................17 III. BLUEPRINT FOR BUILDING: SAMUEL CHAPMAN ARMSTRONG AND THE HAMPTON MODEL ....................................65 IV. FROM BONDAGE TO BUILDING: THE REFORM WORK OF JENNIE DEAN AND DELLA IRVING HAYDEN ...................................................................................................91 V. FROM CLASSROOM TO COMMUNITY: THE REFORM WORK OF JANIE PORTER BARRETT AND AMELIA PERRY PRIDE ........................................................................................142 VI. BOUND BY BUILDING: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF JENNIE DEAN, DELLA IRVING HAYDEN, JANIE PORTER BARRETT, AND AMELIA PERRY PRIDE .........................187 VII. CONCLUSION .......................................................................................217 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................231 vi 1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION In no way could we live up to such a sentiment [“lifting as we climb”] . than by coming into closer touch with the masses of our women . Even though we wish to shun them, . we cannot escape the consequences of their acts. So, that if the call of duty were disregarded altogether, policy and self-preservation would demand that we go down among the lowly, the illiterate, and even the vicious to whom we are bound by the ties of race and sex, and put forth every possible effort to uplift and claim them. Mary Church Terrell1 The above quotation by Mary Church Terrell (1863-1954) encapsulates the inclusive nature of African-American women’s reformism from the late nineteenth century into the early twentieth century. As a founding member and first president of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), Terrell stood at the helm of one of the many key organizations which spearheaded numerous social reform initiatives that infinitely improved the quality of life within the nation’s black communities. Black women’s clubs along with other organizations and individual efforts were paramount in mobilizing resources which created public health care/sanitation programs, prohibitionist campaigns, penal reform campaigns, and instructional institutions. All of these initiatives, which were largely implemented by black women, served early twentieth-century black communities well. Many middle-class African-American women, singly and in groups, devoted themselves to designing programs and building institutions to aid black communities mired in poverty and shackled by racial discrimination. Historian Glenda Gilmore stated flatly that “southern black women 1. Quoted in Anne Firor Scott, “Most Invisible of All: Black Women’s Voluntary Associations,” Journal of Southern History 56 (February 1990), 14. 2 initiated every progressive reform that southern white women initiated, a feat they accomplished without financial resources, without the civic protection of their husbands, and without publicity.”2 The inclusive and independent nature of black southern women’s social reformism during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries is the subject of this dissertation. It focuses on four main individuals: Janie Porter Barrett (1865-1948), Jennie Dean (1852-1913), Della Irving Hayden (1851-1924), and Amelia Perry Pride (1857-1932). The familial and academic backgrounds as well as ideological perspectives

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