Moralistic norms aligned black women with Progressive-era assimilationism

Evidence

Respectability provided a discursive common ground in its concern for sexual purity, child rearing, habits of cleanliness and order, and overall self-improvement. In the context of the progressives’ assimilationist agenda for immigrant groups in the early twentieth century, the black Baptist women’s moralistic language and their social reform goals appear to parallel closely those of white Progressive-era reformers. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 908

Categorization

• XREF: Ongoing theme: how respectability mirrors the language of the dominant society while serving distinct aims. — connects to: Rising black middle-class incomes fostered women’s pursuit of idealized femininity — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 514; Black Baptist women’s church work absorbed secular Progressive-era sociological methods — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 791; Respectability discourse loaded black women with responsibility for the whole race (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Respectability discourse loaded black women with responsibility for the whole race #expands (0.85)
• Black Baptist women’s church work absorbed secular Progressive-era sociological methods #exemplifies (0.80) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 791
• White assimilationist allies expected Black humility rather than assertiveness #expands (0.73) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 791
• Rising black middle-class incomes fostered women’s pursuit of idealized femininity #complicates (0.72) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 514