“I LEAVE YOU LOVE”: African American Women as Collectors in, of, and through, the Arts

Collections ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 113-166
Author(s):  
Lisa Pertillar Brevard
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Black People ◽  
Government Service ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
American Women ◽  
World Citizenship ◽  
Direct Descendant ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Just Society

In her last will and testament, educator-activist Mary McLeod Bethune (1875–1955) declared, “I LEAVE YOU LOVE. Love builds.” A direct descendant of former chattel slaves, Bethune believed in building from the bottom up: beginning with love, or positive thoughts, and manifesting those thoughts. By accretion of goods and goodwill, she built not only a physical school which fostered the arts as a bridge toward world citizenship for disenfranchised black people but also a school of thought, extending to encompass purposeful government service at local and federal levels, toward achieving a just society. Bethune’s determined example of building by accretion informs and helps us to better understand and articulate a wide variety of African American women’s collecting in, of, and through, the arts. This article explores and defines—according to philosophy, purpose, practice, type, scope, and audience—various examples of collecting and collections among selected African American women in the arts, many of whom became contributors to, and subjects of, various collections.

Unsophisticated Buyers

2019 ◽  
pp. 167-210
Author(s):  
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Black People ◽  
Urban Housing ◽  
Housing Crisis ◽  
American Women

As the HUD failed to provide adequate housing for African Americans, officials and media increasingly placed the blame on the African American homeowners. In many cases the focus was on African American women. Instead of attributing an abundance of foreclosures to the selling of dilapidated housing and the inability of tenants to pay for extensive repairs, people claimed African American women were not knowledgeable enough about home maintenance and budgeting to own homes. In some places, potential low-income home buyers were educated on budgeting and home maintenance. However, the assumption that counselling could lead to better home retention ignored the systematic issues that placed Black people in inferior housing. Stories about low-income homeowners, mostly women, suing organizations for tricking them into poor residences, helped undercut the unsophisticated buyer narrative. Additionally, reports of scandal and corruption within the HUD cast a negative light on the response to the urban housing crisis.

Pushing Through the Doors of Resistance in the 1950s

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie A. Gallagher
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Black Women ◽  
African American Women ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
City Government ◽  
Police Chiefs ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
American Women ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Just Society

This chapter follows a number of African American women in the postwar period further into party politics and into city government, and it charts the efforts of local renegades to launch political insurgencies that sought to bring down entrenched Democratic bosses and improve African Americans' and women's access to political power. Despite the challenges they faced, African American women who were committed to creating a more just society through formal politics were extremely busy in the 1950s and 1960s. They introduced new issues into the political discourse as elected officials and government administrators, they pressured political leaders through protests, and they effectively used the courts. Through their examples of leadership and methods of organizing, they also encouraged historically disempowered people, especially black women, to engage in politics and to demand change from various state actors, including politicians, judges, police chiefs, school administrators, and municipal and state bureaucrats.

Assimilation Ideology and Depression in African American Women

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Daboin ◽  
Martha R. Calamaras ◽  
Brittany C. Remmert ◽  
Vilmarie Baez
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
American Women
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