Freed blacks built mutual aid associations on the same pattern as white societies

Evidence

The building of associations among freed blacks followed much the same pattern, including mutual aid, burial, and social associations and black fraternal and women’s groups. Released from bondage, exercising newly acquired civic freedoms, and facing profound social dislocation, blacks founded and joined associations in great numbers in both North and South between 1870 and 1900. In his classic study of The Philadelphia Negro at the turn of the century, W. E. B. Du Bois emphasized the importance of black secret societies, such as the Odd Fellows and Freemasons, in furnishing “pastime from the monotony of work, a field for ambition and intrigue, a chance for parade, and insurance against misfortune”—virtually the same boons that attracted millions of whites into such organizations in these years. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1405

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Freed Black people founded aid societies before the nation’s founding documents were drafted — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project: A New American Origin…, 1026; Civil society institutions reproduce racially structured societies through non-coercive means — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 140; Irish and Black families originally shared proximate poverty and mutual care — Noel Ignatiev, How the Irish Became White, 459 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Freed Black people founded aid societies before the nation’s founding documents were drafted #corroborates (0.82) — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 1026
• Civil society institutions reproduce racially structured societies through non-coercive means #expands (0.78) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 140