Spreading Our Wings
Spreading Our Wings
Afro-Huntingtonian Progress during the Era of “Benevolent Segregation”
This chapter examines Huntington’s growth as a regional urban-industrial hub and black socio-cultural enclave during the early-twentieth century, an era of resurgent white racism nationally. Central to this examination are the responses of second generational Afro-Huntingtonians to the manifestations of strengthening Jim Crow era racism, including what white West Virginian state and municipal authorities euphemistically characterized as “benevolent segregation.” It contends that although social stratification complicated intra-class cooperation, a maturing black professional class within the city and state, linked to the foundation of inter-generational wealth acquisition attendant to family stability, access to broadening educational opportunities, continuing black influx, and embrace of the “Self-Help” philosophy, engaged in a variety of successful actions that advanced African American economic and political progress.
Keywords: Benevolent segregation, White vs. White, lynching, black professional women, Douglass High School, The Pittsburgh Courier, restrictive covenants, colored Huntington, Self-Help philosophy, Washington Place, Barnett Hospital
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