Black Baptist women’s separatism drew on both race and gender consciousness.
Evidence
Some black women adopted the discourse of a strident black nationalism. For example, Amelia Johnson, novelist and wife of black separatist the Reverend Harvey Johnson of Baltimore, did not let her association with the American Baptist Publication Society mitigate against her scathing condemnation of white paternalism. … She urged black control of educational, financial, and religious institutions—insisting that “if our white brethren close their avenues to us because of this determination, we must create avenues for ourselves.” — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 334
Categorization
- XREF: Black separatist institutional self-help parallels the separate-black-institution logic Higgs discusses and echoes an earlier chapter’s self-help-as-respectability theme. — connects to: Black women experienced race through gender and gender through race simultaneously — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 559; Rising racial solidarity among black Baptists ran parallel to rising gender consciousness among women — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 709; For black Baptist women, race consciousness actively promoted rather than suppressed gender empowerment. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 764 (+7 more)
Broader Connections
- Black Baptist women held a double consciousness of simultaneous separateness and alliance
#expands(0.85) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 390 - Black women’s rising gender consciousness strengthened rather than split racial solidarity.
#corroborates(0.82) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 251 - Separate female institutions gave black Baptist women greater authority
#expands(0.78) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 389 - The black church simultaneously united and divided men and women by gender
#complicates(0.72) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 702