Lifting As We Climb
The Women’s Social Club Movement
March is Women’s History Month and National Social Workers Month. It’s a great opportunity to remember and celebrate some of the trail blazers who paved the way for many advancements in civil and human rights we enjoy today. The Black Women's Club Movement, which emerged in the late 19th century, was a powerful force for social change and empowerment in the United States.
As early as 1793 black women came together to create organizations which looked after their community's welfare. Black women's clubs helped raise money for the anti-slavery newspaper The North Star. Many black churches owed their existence to the dedicated work of African-American women organizing in their communities
Eventually these clubs merged into National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACWC): empowering African American women and communities since 1896. Mary Church Terrell was the group’s first president. The daughter of former slaves, Terrell was born on September 23, 1863, in Memphis, Tennessee. Her words— “Lifting as we climb”—became the organization’s motto. She was NACWC President from 1896 to 1901. While they were committed to upward mobility and self-improvement among themselves, their ultimate purpose was to improve the lives of all Black people.
They challenged stereotypes and racism; provided a platform for Black women to advocate for civil rights, women's suffrage, and other social reforms. They provided essential services to their communities and raised awareness about critical issues such as lynching, discrimination, and the need for better education and social services. Nashville had a few Colored Women’s Clubs led by prominent black women. I recently had an opportunity to learn a bit more about some of these local women during my interview with Dr. Learotha Williams, Jr., Professor of African American & Public History at Tennessee State University.
Hattie Ewing Hodgkins Hale was born in Nashville and attended the city’s Pearl High School, graduating at the age of sixteen. She attended Fisk University, graduating with honors in 1911. When Tennessee A&I opened in 1912, Hodgkins secured employment as a professor and private secretary to the university’s first president, William Jasper Hale. She and President Hale were married a year later in Oct 1913. Hale was also intimately involved in the Women’s Club movement in Nashville, becoming one of the leaders of the Forward Quest Club. The organization adhered to the Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin philosophy to uplift African Americans was best accomplished by the mothers, wives, daughters, and sisters.
Nettie Langston Napier was the daughter of John Mercer Langston, the founding dean of the law school at Howard University, and first African American elected to the United States Congress from Virginia.Nettie married James C. Napier, a Nashville lawyer, politician, and civil rights leader, who served as Register of the Treasury from 1911 to 1913. Nettie was described as "the first lady of Nashville's black elite". The Napier household was known as "the undisputed center of Nashville's African American upper class".John Napier helped found the first minority-owned bank in Tennessee. In 1907 Nettie founded the Day Homes' Club, an organization to support African American children in Nashville.
Many times in the recording of history the contributions of women and black people are often left out or minimized. Thanks to historians like Professor Williams that is being remedied. Take a listen to him recount the significant contributions of a few of the wonderful African American women whose advocacy work improved life for blacks in and around Nashville.
Sources:
https://ww2.tnstate.edu/library/bldgs/harhalehall.htm
https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/black-women-s-club-movement.htm
https://findingjosie.com/2021/06/26/josey-josie-outlaw-or-doctor/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nettie_Langston_Napier