Women’s missionary societies uniquely preserved interracial cooperation through the nadir

Evidence

The role of women’s missions proved a noteworthy exception to the betrayal of blacks’ hopes for equality and justice during the late nineteenth century. As the white South structured a segregated society and sanctioned, either explicitly or implicitly, the violence perpetrated upon black communities, evangelical religion in the form of organized women’s missions fostered bonds of interracial cooperation in an effort to uplift the quality of black life in the South. … For most black women, such a sisterhood promised too little to nullify the oppressive effects of racial caste. For a few, like Mary Cook, it indeed made upward mobility possible and instilled a new and gendered vision of self, inspiring dreams of racial justice and women’s rights. This unlikely sisterhood, having been forged in the crucible of racial oppression, could deliver no panacea, but it could and did convey to many nameless black women greater optimism and sense of strength. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 557

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Evangelical religion supplied shared values enabling interracial women’s cooperation — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 452; White and black Baptist women’s missionary work created cross-racial sisterhoods — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women’s…, 430; Fictive kinship terminology activates altruistic norms toward co-religionists — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 385

Broader Connections

• White and black Baptist women’s missionary work created cross-racial sisterhoods #exemplifies (0.97) — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 430
• Fictive kinship terminology activates altruistic norms toward co-religionists #expands (0.72) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 385