African Americans and Women During the 1930’s

1. African Americans and Women During the 1930’s \

2. The first Blacks were brought to the Virginia colony. Initially, some came as indentured servants who received their freedom as soon as their indenture was up, but it did not take long for slavery to become a deeply imbedded institution. Slaves served as house servants, the vast majority -- men, women, and children -- did heavy manual labor, often working from sun up to sun down. Plantations made slavery virtually indispensable and highly profitable. Lifestyles of African Americans and Women during the 1930s

3. ~ Education ~ American education was racially segregated in the 1930s precisely because of the white presumption that blacks were inherently incapable of learning at an advanced level.Black schools, especially in the South, were thus under funded and rudimentary. There were a mere handful of black high schools throughout the South. Two hundred thirty southern counties did not have a single high school for black students in 1932 — even though every one of these counties possessed a high school for whites.

4. ~ How They Were Treated ~ • The myth of the natural inferiority of women greatly influenced the status of women in law. Under the common law of England, an unmarried woman could own property, make a contract, or sue and be sued. But a married woman, defined as being one with her husband, gave up her name, and virtually all her property came under her husband's control. • During the early history of the United States, a man virtually owned his wife and children as he did his material possessions. If a poor man chose to send his children to the poorhouse, the mother was legally defenseless to object. Some communities, however, modified the common law to allow women to act as lawyers in the courts, to sue for property, and to own property in their own names if their husbands agreed. • Until well into the 20th century, women in Western European countries lived under many of the same legal disabilities as women in the United States. For example, until 1935, married women in England did not have the full right to own property and to enter into contracts on a par with unmarried women. Only after 1920 was legislation passed to provide working women with employment opportunities and pay equal to men. Not until the early 1960s was a law passed that equalized pay scales for men and women in the British civil service.

5. Mary McLeod Bethune 1875-1955 One of the most widely known African American women of the twentieth century,Mary McLeod Bethune, was an educator, political advisor, and civil rights leader.In 1935, Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Womenand served as president until 1949. She retired from public life on her seventy-fifth birthday in 1950, settling in her home on the campus of Bethune-Cookman College, and over the next five years received 12 honorary degrees. Famous and Notable African Americans during the 1930s

6. As a college student at Cornell University, Fauset had started corresponding with W.E.B. Du Bois, editor of the NAACP's journal The Crisis, and later submitted articles to the journal. After completing her master's degree in French in 1920, she was invited to become The Crisis's literary editor, holding the job until 1923 and afterward becoming the managing editor. As both a foster mother to and a product of the Harlem Renaissance, Fauset wrote more novels than any other black writer from 1924 to 1933. The black characters in her novels reflect the "Talented Tenth" and her own experiences with the hard-working, self-respecting black middle class. Fauset left The Crisis in 1927 to achieve a more ordered life as a French teacher at De Witt Clinton High School. She continued to teach in New York until 1944 and later taught as a visiting professor in the English Department at Hampton Institute. Jessie Fauset 1882-1961 Famous and Notable African Americans during the 1930s

7. Its important to know about this topic because it helps us to realize the past may be gone but it is and must never be forgotten. It also helps us to ponder on how African Americans were treated during the 1930s and helps us to note even though slavery is abolished in the United States it is still common in other parts of the world. It affects us today because there is still racial tension among blacks and white folk. An example of this is the KKK. Why Is It Important To Know About This Topic and How Does It Affect Us Today?

8. ~ Resources ~ Images: • http://sun.menloschool.org/~nfortman/8th/decadesweb.2003/milas • http://afroamhistory.about.com/od/people/ig/Great-Depression---Mississippi.htm • http://images.google.com/images?imgsz=xxlarge&gbv-2&svnum=10&hl=en&q=school+houses+in+the+1930s • http://images.google.com/images?imgsz2=small%7Cmedium%7Clarge%7Cxlarge&gbv=2&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&9=Jessie+Fause+&btnG=Search+Images • http://images.google.com/images?q=Mary+McLeod+Bethune&gbv=2&svnum=10&hl=en&imgsz=small&7CMedium%7Clarge&Cxlarge&ie=UTF-8&um=l&um=N&tab=wi

9. ~ Resources ~ Web Sites: • http://www.marist.edu/summerscholars/97/african1.htm • http://www.wic.org/misc/history.htm • http://www.edst.purdue.edu/georgeoff/400/BLACKEDUC.htm • http://www.bookrags.com/history/american_1930s-education/subs.html • http://www.africanamericans.com/Biographies.htm • http://www.uga.edu/iaas/history/