Black communities and families resisted Spelman’s Victorian reform ideals as divisive

Evidence

It was not uncommon for the Spelman women to meet with resistance, however. Some blacks rejected their Victorian ideals and viewed their “assimilationist” goals as divisive in families and communities. … During vacation from school, students often met resistance from their own family members when they returned home and endeavored to alter long-established patterns. A missionary reported that the students were called “bigheaded” or “too fine” because of their tireless efforts to sway parents from smoking and drinking. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 199

Categorization

• XREF: Provides the counterpoint essential to reading politics of respectability as contested rather than universally embraced - internal policing meets internal resistance. — connects to: Black middle-class advancement sharpened cultural divisions within black society — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 224; Spelman founders treated black emotional worship and home life as needing correction — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 185; Northern white missionaries founded Spelman with Rockefeller money as black women’s higher education — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 177 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Spelman founders treated black emotional worship and home life as needing correction #corroborates (0.95) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 185
• Northern white missionaries founded Spelman with Rockefeller money as black women’s higher education #expands (0.85) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 177