Essay: African American Women Leaders between 1877 and 1940

African American women leaders between 1877 and 1940

The experiences of African American women leaders between 1877 and 1940 were diverse and rooted into strong racial awareness. As many historians have studied a lot of black women contributions during this period but were not seen and recognized as a part of history. Many African Americans were promised citizenship yet they were still being treated unequal and has difficult times being accepted.

African Americans have been treated as second class citizens due to the lack of equality and freedom many sought after. For some Reconstruction was to reestablish union and to others it was to grant freedom to slaves. African American women had meaningful roles in both the labor and US armed forces of World War II but were restricted due to segregation and racism.

African American women were racially and gender discriminated against making them have to fight that much harder to get into job positions and once hired often they were forced to use segregated restrooms and paid the lowest amount for work performed. Victoria Earle Matthews, established in February 1897 a settle house located on the Upper East Side, the White Rose Mission, to help these young women arriving in New York City (Kramer, S. 2006), but Matthew's long history of prominence and activism in the black community gave her great credibility.

Victoria became more involved after the death of her only son and her passion for helping children and women began as she started her social work. Matthew's attended the Congress of Colored Women of the United States at an Atlanta Exposition in 1895 and traveled through the south to investigate circumstances and statuses of African American Women where she found many of them to be in horrifying conditions.

Many black women of the south were being exploited by agencies who were in the business to sell the young girls body in the rural south and southern cities by selling a life in New York filling honorable positions only to find disappointment and the broken promises of these agencies. Matthew established a traveler's aid service The White Rose which was one of the first in the country that housed hundreds of girls and provided a variety of services. After Matthew's established the White Rose organizations for African American increased.

She found volunteers who would meet at the docks to meet the young black girls traveling and save them from becoming entrapped by disreputable employment agencies that exploited young black women. The women learned sewing, cooking, dressmaking and learned a trade in professional courses of bookkeeping, tying, stenography and reading. Designed to help young girls to learn the principle of self- help and right living that would bring a wholesomeness to their lives.

Victoria Mathew's recognition of the problem faced by young black women migrating to the southern and some northern cities contributed to the White Rose mission success. The White Rose was one of the first organizations that provided lodging, food and skills to young black women. Victoria Earle Matthews died in 1907 from contracting tuberculosis, in spite of all the problems she faced Matthews had success in getting the communities to recognize the problems African American women faced after arriving in New York City.

African American women in the early 1900's were never given much of a chance to succeed at anything other than what was deemed appropriate to their race and sex. For Bessie Coleman, it was a struggle for her to do what she wanted to do and be who she wanted to be because of two things only, she was black, and she was a women.

Bessie Coleman was born to an African American Mother and a Native American father on January 26th, 1893. She was born in Texas was segregation and racism was large in part to the short comings she experienced as a child. She had worked many years for her mother doing laundry and picking cotton to be able to save money so that she may better herself.

She did what many individuals never got the chance to do, which was go to college. College was too expensive for her in Texas though and she was forced to drop out. She moved to Chicago in the hopes of bettering herself by graduating from a beauty school and catering to individuals through the use of manicures.

Bessie Coleman had wanted to do more and decided she wanted to become a pilot, more so since her brother told her she couldn't. The problem was, she couldn't in America because of her sex and her skin color. Bessie wanted to learn to fly so much that she learned French, filled out applications in French and moved to France to learn how to fly.

Bessie Coleman was offered a job in a movie being filmed by a African American film company and turned it down because she saw the opening role for her to be degrading and would not use her newly claimed fame to perpetuate a stereotype against her race or even her sex. She is an African American Leader because of the role she played in showing not only the black communities, but the female communities, that they can do what they want and ended up giving them hope to be and do more than they had thought was possible.