Burroughs rejected her mother’s ceiling on black women’s work ambitions

Evidence

Despite the comparison of her parents and the deep admiration for her mother, she rejected her mother’s advice that she take up domestic service instead of secretarial work. Praising her own foresight, Burroughs recalled her mother’s reiteration of her employer’s words—“colored girls had no chance in the world to make a living as a stenographer and bookkeeper.” Strong-willed and determined to prove both her mother’s boss and her mother wrong, Burroughs moved to Philadelphia after her graduation from high school and found a job as a secretary for a black newspaper. Her mother’s limited vision, Burroughs reminisced in later years, was based on the belief that “there was no future in business.” — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 986