Black Neighbors: Race and the Limits of Reform in the American Settlement House Movement, 1890-1945 - Softcover

Lasch-Quinn, Elisabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807821144 ISBN 13: 9780807821145

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 1993

Synopsis

Professing a policy of cultural and social integration, the American settlement house movement made early progress in helping immigrants adjust to life in American cities. However, when African Americans migrating from the rural South in the early twentieth century began to replace white immigrants in settlement environs, most houses failed to redirect their efforts toward their new neighbors. Nationally, the movement did not take a concerted stand on the issue of race until after World War II. In Black Neighbors, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn analyzes this reluctance of the mainstream settlement house movement to extend its programs to African American communities, which, she argues, were assisted instead by a variety of alternative organizations. Lasch-Quinn recasts the traditional definitions, periods, and regional divisions of settlement work and uncovers a vast settlement movement among African Americans. By placing community work conducted by the YWCA, black women's clubs, religious missions, southern industrial schools, and other organizations within the settlement tradition, she highlights their significance as well as the mainstream movement's failure to recognize the enormous potential in alliances with these groups. Her analysis fundamentally revises our understanding of the role that race has played in American social reform.

About this title

Book Description

"Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn has crafted an excellent new perspective on the historical development of the American settlement movement."-- Arkansas Historical Quarterly

From the Back Cover

In 'Black Neighbors', Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn analyzes this reluctance by the mainstream settlement house movement to extend its programs to African American communities, which she argues, were assisted instead by a variety of alternative organizations. Lasch-Quinn recasts the traditional definitions, periods, and regional divisions of settlement work and uncovers a vast settlement movement among African Americans.

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0807821144
• ISBN 13: 9780807821145
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240