Racial self-help thrived amid disfranchisement, segregation, and pervasive violence.

Evidence

Mary Cook’s letters, both of them written in 1885, capture two different but interrelated themes in the history of black women during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. The theme of racial self-help during a time of disfranchisement, segregation, and pervasive violence is readily apparent. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 422

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Segregation and violence pushed the black church toward collective self-help — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 241; Black women’s separatist organizing added gender consciousness to racial self-help — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 338; Respectability politics mobilized working-class blacks toward racial self-help — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 94 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Segregation and violence pushed the black church toward collective self-help #exemplifies (0.88) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 241
• Black women’s separatist organizing added gender consciousness to racial self-help #expands (0.85) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 338
• Respectability politics mobilized working-class blacks toward racial self-help #exemplifies (0.83) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 94
• Elite Black women’s self-help efforts reproduced racist views of poor Black women #qualifies (0.82) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 727
• Black post-emancipation abuse produced resilience rather than resignation #corroborates (0.80)