Critically Comparing of Different Types of Research

The Progressive Era is often regarded as a period full of great social, economic, and political transformations in the United States. This era also saw substantial changes in the roles of race and gender in society. In her book, Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896-1920, Glenda E. Gilmore examines the political and social climate of the upper American South and the rising influences of middle-class African American women.

To understand the rise in black female activism in this period, Gilmore first discusses the constructions of race, class, and manhood among black and white men. Following Reconstruction, African Americans were continuing to build up their social status in the South. Gilmore discusses the “Best Man” and “Best Woman” ideals held by many African Americans which embraced the Victorian values of the middle class such as temperance, frugality, and hard work to prove that they could also live dignified and successful lives free of prejudice just as their white counterparts. The rising visibility of the black middle-class, however, instigated the white supremacist movement of the “New Southern Men”. The author argues that this movement implicitly authorized white supremacy in the South, while a modern international image of self-restrained, yet virile, white manhood lent urgency to the white supremacists’ task. Gail Bederman makes a similar argument in her book, Manliness and Civilization. Bederman utilizes the example of boxers Jim Jeffries and Jack Johnson as influencers in the changing ideals of male dominance and racial superiority. When Jeffries’ could not ‘prove’ his Anglo-Saxon manhood over Johnson because he lost their boxing match, a much larger public scandal arose which portrayed black men such as Johnson to be bestial in nature and were potentially threatening. The use of the black beast and rapist imageries transcended across class divisions among whites both in the South and North. This controversy exemplifies one of the ways Progressive era men used ideas about white supremacy to produce a racially-biased ideology of male power. Colin B. Chapell’s article also relates to Gilmore’s argument as he discusses the Progressive Era racial ideologies and how they related to gender. He finds that both the liberal and conservative ideals of this period portrayed white men as the idealized image of masculinity and feminized minorities—especially African Americans. His analysis follows both Gilmore and Bederman’s arguments that in order to assert their male dominance, white men will utilize their race to reaffirm their authority as a gender.

As the white supremacist campaigns of the late 1890s led to the disfranchisement of black men through Jim Crow legislation, African Americans sought other outlets to escape discrimination. Gilmore discusses the “Great Migration” of African Americans to Northern states such as New Jersey offered the most attractive alternative to southern oppression. The author further discusses that it was majorly the “intelligent laboring class”—or the “New Man” and “New Woman”—who made up most of this early migration, noting that the first to leave were likely among the most educated. The migration of African Americans from their Southern homes to the urban North sparked debated and revealed tensions over the issue. The author includes the discussion of two black North Carolinian women—Addie Sagers and Laura Arnold—who presented the debate “Is the South the Best Home for the Negro?” at a summer lecture series for African Americans. This conversation prompted other black women to participate in the debate and become more involved in their decisions to move. The debate’s Washingtonian position held that while African Americans were disfranchised in the South, the economic opportunities were much better in the South. The only work, they argued, that African Americans could find in the industrial north would be lowly manual work in factories, whereas in the South blacks owned more land. The opposing side, however, fought against the harsh and often violent discriminatory acts such as lynching and the decreasing educational and employment opportunities in the South. While it is not his central argument, John Higham does discuss the impacts of scientific racism on the migration of African Americans. The Klu Klux Klan’s published lessons in eugenics and championed white supremacist sentiments prevailed throughout the South, instilling fears in African Americans which also contributed to their decisions to move. Joe William Trotter similarly addresses that African Americans did not only migrate North to seek economic prosperity but also in hopes of social equality. Trotter also recalls that the North was often referred to as “The Promised Land” by many African Americans as they escaped the exploitation of Southern Jim Crow laws and found social justice in the modern industrial society of the urban North.

In the post-Civil War era, while African Americans still faced significant hardships in Southern society, they were gradually rising in socioeconomic status. Gilmore focuses on the growing middle class of black women and their involvement in various professional outlets. The author includes that this class of black women became involved in voluntary organizations and began receiving higher education. Gilmore asserts that higher education prepared black women with a finite body of knowledge and they departed with intellectual weapons to aim at poverty and discrimination. The author also notes that coeducational schools, which most black men and women attended, impacted gender relations and encouraged black women to maintain active roles in the public spheres. As black women continued to participate in public affairs, they slowly gained recognition from white women in similar organizations and began working together across racial lines to solve common issues. Gilmore coins this cordial relationship between white and black women in women’s suffrage, temperance, and Christian organizations as “interracial cooperation”. Many hoped that this structure could help build recognition of shared womanhood and shared class goals that looked past skin color to recognize each other’s humanity. While many of these biracial organizations were still segregated internally, their views differed greatly from the white male perspective. Gilmore’s inclusion of black women’s struggle to find equality among white women relates to Nancy Cott’s The Grounding of Modern Feminism. Cott’s central argument surrounds the tension between equality and individuality among women. She recalls that there was a feminist legacy and a feminist paradox: how to be human beings and women too. If one separates this argument among white and black women, it becomes a deeper struggle. White women faced the battle of wanting to celebrate their individual characteristics which separated them from men, yet also longing to be treated without limitations just as men. Black women, however, desired and fought for not only equality among black and men, but also among white women. Their movement for liberation were more difficult and took longer to achieve than that of white women. This analysis is also exemplified in Elna C. Green’s article in which she discusses Southern suffragist Kate Gordon’s opposition to the Nineteenth Amendment of the Constitution. While Gordon was a staunch believer in women’s suffrage, she also adamantly opposed black suffrage. She advocated against the passage of the nineteenth amendment to the United States Constitution because she—as many other Southerners felt—that federal enactment would naturally bring federal enforcement, which would mean that the South’s literacy and comprehension tests enacted through Jim Crow legislation would be disallowed by the Supreme Court. As evidenced through Green’s study, issues of white supremacy maintained in the South, which created more conflict in the black suffrage movement. Unlike Anglo-Saxon women, African Americans had to first overcome the racist attitudes that prevailed in early twentieth-century America before they could attempt to gain respect and status as women.

Glenda Gilmore’s Gender and Jim Crow provides a thorough historical narrative about the social and political climates of the American South during the Progressive Era through the lenses of black women. This rarely studied perspective offers insight into the racial and gender tensions of the Progressive Era and how the legacy of black women impacted the discriminative society of the Jim Crow South and its politics. Gilmore argues that without the leadership and activism of these black women such as Mary McCrorey as educators, or Mary Lynch in organizations such as the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WTCU), then the opportunities for black women in politics and society may have followed a different course throughout American history.