Black Baptist women’s separatism stemmed from gender conflict with men as much as racism.

Evidence

While the separatist leanings of black men reflected interracial tensions and racial consciousness, the separatist leanings of black Baptist women reflected this and something more. The formation of black women’s conventions derived also from gender consciousness, which served to reinterpret the philosophy of self-help beyond the singular discourse of race. Black women and men agreed neither upon “woman’s place” in the larger racial struggle, nor upon the relations of power between themselves. … For black Baptist women, the double consciousness of race and gender led to the perception of a dual struggle. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 338

Categorization

• SEED: Could frame an essay on why self-help movements split along internal lines of gender when the unifying frame is race.
• XREF: Anna Cooper’s critique of black men’s 16th-century logic on the woman question connects to the broader ‘politics of respectability’ tension between internal policing and external repression. — connects to: Black Baptist women’s national organizing faced sustained male resistance from churchmen. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 691; Male Baptist leaders dismantled the women’s auxiliary almost as soon as it formed. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 715; Black Baptist ministers linked racial discrimination to gender exclusion as twin injustices. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 131 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Black Baptist women’s separatism drew on both race and gender consciousness. #corroborates (0.95) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 334
• Rising racial solidarity among black Baptists ran parallel to rising gender consciousness among women #expands (0.80) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 709
• The black church simultaneously united and divided men and women by gender #expands (0.78) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 702
• Racial uplift work blurred gender dichotomies among black Baptists #complicates (0.75) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 664
• Black women experienced sexist oppression distinct from racism #corroborates (0.72) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 47