National Council of Negro Women - Strategic sisterhood: the National Council of Negro Women in the Black freedom struggle

Strategic Sisterhood

REBECCA TUURI

Strategic Sisterhood

The National Council of Negro Women in the Black Freedom Struggle

The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill

This book was published with the assistance of the Authors Fund of the University of North Carolina Press.

2018 The University of North Carolina Press

All rights reserved

Set in Arno Pro by Westchester Publishing Services

Manufactured in the United States of America

The University of North Carolina Press has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Tuuri, Rebecca, author.

Title: Strategic sisterhood : the National Council of Negro Women in the black freedom struggle / Rebecca Tuuri.

Description: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017044667| ISBN 9781469638898 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781469638904 (pbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781469638911 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH : National Council of Negro WomenHistory20th century. | African American womenSocieties and clubsHistory20th century. | African American womenCivil rightsHistory20th century. | Black powerUnited StatesHistory20th century.

Classification: LCC E 185.86 . T 89 2018 | DDC 305.48/896073dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017044667

Cover illustration: NCNW leadership laying a wreath at the Mary McLeod Bethune statue in Lincoln Park (unidentified photographer, courtesy of the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site, National Archives for Black Womens History, NCNW Records, series 14, #0484).

Portions of this book were previously published in a different form and are used here with permission. Chapters 2 and 3 include material from This Was the Most Meaningful Thing That Ive Ever Done: The Personal Civil Rights Approach of Wednesdays in Mississippi, Journal of Womens History 28, no. 4 (2016): 89112 (copyright 2016 Journal of Womens History, Inc.). Chapters 5 and 7 include material from By Any Means Necessary: The Flexible Loyalties of the National Council of Negro Women in the Black Freedom Struggle, in U.S. Womens History: Untangling the Threads of Sisterhood , ed. Leslie Brown, Jacqueline Castledine, and Anne Valk, 3248 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2017) (copyright 2017 Rutgers, The State University).

To the women of the National Council of Negro Women

Contents

Graph and Map

GRAPH

MAP

Abbreviations in the Text

AAUW

American Association of University Women

ANLCA

American Negro Leadership Conference on Africa

CAA

Council on African Affairs

CAW

Congress of American Women

CCC

Commission on Community Cooperation

CDGM

Child Development Group of Mississippi

COFO

Council of Federated Organizations

CORE

Congress of Racial Equality

CRC

Civil Rights Congress

CSW

Commission on the Status of Women

CUCRL

Council for United Civil Rights Leadership

CWU

Church Women United

HUD

Department of Housing and Urban Development

IWY

International Womens Year

LEAA

Law Enforcement Assistance Administration

LWV

League of Women Voters

MFDP

Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

MPE

Mississippians for Public Education

NAACP

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

NACW

National Association of Colored Women

NCCW

National Council of Catholic Women

NCJW

National Council of Jewish Women

NCNW

National Council of Negro Women

NWCCR

National Womens Committee on Civil Rights

NWRO

National Welfare Rights Organization

OEO

Office of Economic Opportunity

PCSW

Presidents Commission on the Status of Women

SCLC

Southern Christian Leadership Conference

SDEDD

South Delta Economic Development District

SDS

Students for a Democratic Society

SNCC

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

TWWA

Third World Womens Alliance

USAID

United States Agency for International Development

WC

Womans Convention

WICS

Women in Community Service

WIMS

Wednesdays in Mississippi; later Workshops in Mississippi

WU

Womanpower Unlimited

YWCA

Young Womens Christian Association

Strategic Sisterhood

Introduction

When Gulfport civil rights activist Sammie Lee Gray-Wiseman finally had the chance to meet Dr. Dorothy Height, the president of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW, or council), she was excited. It was 1967, and Gray-Wiseman had been working on a new council project to institute a low-income home ownership program in North Gulfport, Mississippi. In order to establish the program, NCNW required that a local section be established in the area first. Once Gray-Wiseman had gathered the necessary signatures and membership dues, NCNW representatives Unita Blackwella black grassroots leader from Mayersville, Mississippiand Dorothy Dukea white housing expert from Lorain, Ohiobegan to search for the site for the new subdivision. Height came down shortly thereafter.

Although Height stayed for less than twenty-four hours, she made a tremendous impact on Gray-Wiseman. Being around her was just like you being in the company of a queen. She spoke very nicely, and she was funny, and [despite being] a lady of her caliber or standards she was as sweet as she could be.

In many recent and influential histories of the postwar black freedom struggle, black middle-class women, such as those who belonged to the NCNW, have been largely overlooked in favor of more visible, outspoken, and radical activists, who took to the streets during the civil rights and Black Power movements. Other important studies have considered only working-class womens activism. The full story of the civil rights movement and the subsequent Black Power movement can only be told by exploring a wide variety of organizations, institutions, and strategies, and recognizing the roles played by middle-class, nationally connected moderates as well as youthful and community-based radicals.

In addition, while recent histories have stressed the importance of local women in fueling and providing the backbone of the civil rights movement, many council women were not only its foot soldiers but also its torchbearers. NCNW women were often the only women at civil rights leadership gatherings or the only black members of women-only groups. Therefore, women in the civil rights movement were not only the backbone of the movement but, at least within the council, its leadership as well.

Despite working through a voluntary womens organization, NCNW women had the political, social, and economic cachet to bring resources to black communities in the mid-twentieth century. Longtime president Dorothy Height served as a leader within important womens organizations, such as Delta Sigma Theta and the Young Womens Christian Association (YWCA) before and during her NCNW presidency. In addition, she served on a variety of important postwar advisory committees, including President Kennedys 1961 Commission on the Status of Women; the Department of Defenses Advisory Committee on Women in the Services; and the White Houses National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. Both liberal and conservative presidents admired this organization. At the same time, radicals working daily to improve the conditions of life on the ground, such as Brooks and McLaurin in Mississippi, also respected the council.