Black Baptist women’s reform agenda drew on white urban sociology

Evidence

In her annual report to the WC in 1912, Nannie Burroughs highlighted the work of white sociologists in urban areas and urged her sisters to form a Social Service Committee which could effect “real reform through a practical system of community education.” — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 1492

Categorization

• XREF: Contrasts with narratives presenting black respectability politics purely as self-generated Protestant moralism. — connects to: Black Baptist women’s church work absorbed secular Progressive-era sociological methods — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 791; Baptist missionary women adopted social-work monitoring of young urban female migrants — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 838; Black Baptist women combined rational reform with fervent worship — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 1504 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Black Baptist women adopted efficiency as an organizing watchword #expands (0.78) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 1509
• Black Baptist women combined rational reform with fervent worship #expands (0.75) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 1504