The National PTA, Race, and Civic Engagement, 1897–1970 The National PTA, Race, and Civic Engagement, 1897–1970 Christine Woyshner T H E O H I O S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y P R E ss C O L U MB us Copyright © 2009 by The Ohio State University. All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Woyshner, Christine A. The national PTA, race, and civic engagement, 1897–1970 / Christine Woyshner. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8142-0755-0 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. National PTA (U.S.)—History. 2. National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers—His- tory. 3. Education—Parent participation—United States—History. I. Title. LC225.5.W69 2009 371.19'206073—dc22 2008042261 This book is available in the following editions: Cloth (ISBN 978-0-8142-0755-0) CD-ROM (ISBN 978-0-8142-9190-0) Cover design by Laurence J. Nozik Text design by Juliet Williams Typeset in Adobe Minion Pro Printed by Thomson-Shore, Inc. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materi- als. ANSI Z39.48-1992. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CONTENTS List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgments ix INTRODUCTION The National PTA, Race, and Civic Engagement 1 CHAPTER 1 “No Hats to Be Worn”: Organizing the National Congress of Mothers 18 CHAPTER 2 “To Work More Effectively and Gain Better Leadership Experience”: The Founding of the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers 52 CHAPTER 3 “For Convenience of a Better Education and Training for My People”: Organizational Growth and Stability 85 CHAPTER 4 Making America “Strong from Within”: School Lunches, Civics, and Intergroup Relations 123 CHAPTER 5 Diminishing as It Advanced: The Unification of the PTA 152 EPILOGUE Civil Society and Public Education 195 Appendix Archives 203 Notes 205 Works Cited 257 Index 273 ILLUSTRAT I ONS FIGURE 1.1 The “Cabinet Ladies,” or first Board of Managers of the National Congress of Mothers, 1896 28 FIGURE 2.1 Comparison of PTA membership data, 1897–1925 61 FIGURE 2.2 Elementary school band at a Rosenwald school in Stone Mountain, Georgia, n.d. 68 FIGURE 2.3 The Yonge Street Parent-Teacher Association, date unknown 79 FIGURE 3.1 Jeanes teacher and PTA organizer Narvie Harris, 1945 87 FIGURE 3.2 State units of the NCPT, 1902, 1912, 1922, and 1957 93 FIGURE 3.3 NCPT membership, 1930–55 94 FIGURE 3.4 NCCPT membership, 1930–55 99 FIGURE 3.5 State units of the NCCPT, 1926–28, 1932, and 1946 103 FIGURE 3.6 Groundbreaking for a new high school in Georgia, n.d. 115 FIGURE 5.1 State branches of the NCCPT, 1926–76 159 FIGURE 5.2 Atlanta PTA district workshop at Wheat Street Baptist Church, 1959 167 FIGURE 5.3 Cover of NCCPT magazine, Our National Family, June 1968 179 FIGURE 5.4 NCPT President Pearl Price signing unification agreement, Atlanta, June 22, 1970 189 vii Ac KNOWLEDGMENTS AM ALWAYS astonished by the number of people it takes to bring a single- I authored book to publication, and this work is no exception. This project has deep roots; its origins are found in my dissertation, in which I investigated the founding of the National PTA. Therefore, I must begin by acknowledg- ing the guidance of my thesis advisors, Vito Perrone, Sally Schwager, Barbara Beatty, and Linda Eisenmann. These four pushed my thinking about schooling and the influence of women volunteers, and when I felt challenged as a new- comer to history, Vito would always remind me to just tell a story. My early attempts at writing history involved a focus on biographical anal- ysis, but these investigations took me only so far analytically. As luck would have it, I landed a position as a research assistant during the last two years of my graduate program that has shaped my thinking for this study. Work- ing under the direction of Theda Skocpol and Marshall Ganz of the Civic Engagement Project at Harvard University compelled me to think in terms of networks, civic associations, and the connections that are created between and among historical actors. I am indebted to Theda, Marshall, and the rest of the CEP researchers for helping me strengthen the analysis and giving me the framework within which this study resides. More recently, Abigail Peck sent me additional data from the CEP as I was finalizing the manuscript. When I finished my dissertation, I knew there was a larger story to be told about the racial policies and practices of the PTA, but uncovering the data and writing that history would take me well beyond my graduate school years. Presenting my emerging ideas at conferences as I continued to search for documentation on the National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers proved to be a process that helped me develop the arguments and findings for this book. During the years I was developing those ideas, I benefited from the wisdom and encouragement of many colleagues, including Jim Anderson, ix x Ac KN O WLEDGMEN ts Nancy Beadie, Barbara Beatty, Susan Crawford, Bill Cutler, Linda Eisenmann, Michael Fultz, Vicki Gabriner, Ken Gold, Julia Grant, Val Littlefield, Margaret Nash, Dan Perlstein, Carol Rodgers, Wayne Urban, Vanessa Siddle Walker, Kathleen Weiler, Andrea Walton, Lynn Weiner, and Jon Zimmerman. My writing group pals Alison Cook-Sather, Alice Lesnik, and Kristine Lewis helped at a most critical point in the manuscript, reading first drafts of chapters. Their suggestions and comments sustained me throughout the process, and their being outsiders to history has helped, I hope, make the narrative more accessible to readers in general. Additional projects I worked on during my pre-tenure years connected me with scholars who have come to be mentors and friends. My collaboration with Jane Bernard-Powers, Marga- ret Smith Crocco, Carole Hahn, and Joseph Watras has, I believe, helped me round out my repertoire of research skills. A handful of grants supported this research, including a Radcliffe Grant for Graduate Women; a Grant-in-Aid from the Rockefeller Archive Center in Pocantico Hills, New York; and a Research Travel Grant from the Institute for Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina. I also appreciated the help of archivists Chuck Hill at Eastern Kentucky University, Annie Wang at the National PTA, Jason Kneip and Samantha McNeilly at Auburn University at Montgomery, the folks at the Library of Congress, and Ken Rose and the staff at the Rockefeller Archive Center. Several grants from my department at Temple University’s College of Education and two summer research fel- lowships allowed me the time, freedom, and financing to work on the book and gather the hard-to-find black PTA data. I am especially grateful for the unwavering support of my department chair, Thomas Walker. A research and study leave from Temple University allowed me the time to draft the book manuscript, and several individuals helped me pull things together toward the end. I am indebted to Jim Gilmour for preparing the charts and tables for the book and to Claudia Keenan for her feedback on the complete manuscript. Jackie McCarthy at the National PTA and PJ Norlander and Joy Gilbert at Arcadia Publishing approved the use of photos from their collections. I am appreciative of the expert guidance of Sandy Crooms and the rest of the staff at The Ohio State University Press. My parents have always been there as a source of support and strength. Losing my father and gaining a son while writing the manuscript has reminded me of the importance of keeping things in perspective and keeping me from thinking the book, as significant as it is to me professionally, was the only thing that mattered. As if that were not enough to remind me, Michael has been at my side, prodding me and encouraging me all the while, giving me the time and space to see this work come to publication. I dedicate this book to him. INTRODU C T I ON The National PTA, Race, and Civic Engagement N 1897 at a meeting of the National Education Association, General Fed- Ieration of Women’s Clubs (GFWC) president Ellen M. Henrotin gave a speech on the role of women’s organizations in public education. She posited that the two major movements of the late nineteenth century—the “woman movement” and the development of popular education—were, in fact, interde- pendent, as women volunteers worked tirelessly to shape schools and the cur- riculum through their associations. She announced, “The work of the general federation from 1896 to 1898 will be devoted to furthering a knowledge of and an interest in the educational conditions of the United States, both in the state and public-school systems.” Citing the duplication of organized women’s work around the nation, Henrotin informed her audience of professional educators that superintendents and teachers are “often unable to secure needed reforms in this direction from the school boards. It needs an outside influence.” The outside influence, women’s federated associations, enabled women to wield public influence during a time when they were denied power through other means. Henrotin’s speech foreshadowed women’s educational activism for decades to come, through her own association and others, such as the National Association of Colored Women, the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, known colloquially as the PTA.1 To Henrotin and her contemporaries, the benefits of organization were clear; they allowed for many members to unite around a common cause and to carry out work that relied on the strength of numbers.