Talk with You Like a Woman: African American Women, Justice, and Reform in New York, 1890-1935

389 Pages·2010·2.342 MB·English

by  Cheryl D. Hicks

talk with you like a woman
GENDER AND AMERICAN CULTURE
Coeditors
Thadious M. Davis
Mary Kelley
Editorial Advisory Board
Nancy Cott
Jane Sherron De Hart
John D’Emilio
Farrah Griffin
Amy Kaplan
Linda K. Kerber
Annette Kolodny
Nell Irvin Painter
Janice Radway
Barbara Sicherman
Emerita Board Members
Cathy N. Davidson
Sara Evans
Wendy Martin
A complete list of books published in Gender and American Culture
is available at www.uncpress.unc.edu.
talk with you like a
woman
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN,
JUSTICE, AND REFORM IN NEW YORK,
1890–1935
Cheryl D. Hicks
The University of North Carolina Press(cid:1)Chapel Hill
© 2010 THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA PRESS
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Designed by Kimberly Bryant and set in Miller and Smokler types by
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The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and
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has been a member of the Green Press Initiative since 2003.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hicks, Cheryl D., 1971–
Talk with you like a woman : African American women, justice,
and reform in New York, 1890–1935 / Cheryl D. Hicks.
p. cm. — (Gender and American culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8078-3424-4 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8078-7162-1 (pbk : alk. paper)
1. African American women—Employment—New York (State)—New York.
2. African American women—New York (State)—New York—Social conditions—History.
3. Sex role—New York (State)—New York—History—19th century.
4. Women’s rights—New York (State)—New York—History—19th century.
5. Racism—New York (State)—New York—History—20th century. I. Title.
F128.9.N4H53 2010
305.48′8960730747—dc22
2010027107
cloth&14(cid:3)13(cid:3)12(cid:3)11(cid:3)10&5(cid:3)4(cid:3)3(cid:3)2(cid:3)1&&paper&14(cid:3)13(cid:3)12(cid:3)11(cid:3)10&5(cid:3)4(cid:3)3(cid:3)2(cid:3)1
Portions of this work appeared previously in somewhat different form in
Cheryl D. Hicks, “‘In Danger of Becoming Morally Depraved’: Single Black
Women, Working-Class Black Families, and New York State’s Wayward Minor Law,
1917–1928,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 151 U. PA. L. Rev. 2077 (2003)
(printed here with permission); and Cheryl D. Hicks, “‘Bright and Good Looking
Colored Girl’: Black Women’s Sexuality and ‘Harmful Intimacy’ in Early Twentieth-
Century New York,” Journal of the History of Sexuality 18, no. 3 (2009): 418–56
(© 2009 by the University of Texas Press. All rights reserved).
for my parents,
THEODORE W. HICKS
and
DELORIS J. HICKS
and my sister,
MICHELLE R. HICKS
contents
Acknowledgments xi
INTRODUCTION
Talk with You Like a Woman 1
I
African American Urban Life and the
Multiple Meanings of Protection in the City
CHAPTER 1
To Live a Fuller and Freer Life
Black Women Migrants’ Expectations and New York’s
Urban Realities, 1890–1927 23
CHAPTER 2
The Only One That Would Be Interested in Me
Police Brutality, Black Women’s Protection, and the
New York Race Riot of 1900 53
CHAPTER 3
I Want to Save These Girls
Single Black Women and Their Protectors, 1895–1911 91
II
Urban Reform and Criminal Justice
CHAPTER 4
Colored Women of Hard and Vicious Character
Respectability, Domesticity, and Crime, 1893–1933 125
CHAPTER 5
Tragedy of the Colored Girl in Court
The National Urban League and New York’s
Women’s Court, 1911–1931 159
CHAPTER 6
In Danger of Becoming Morally Depraved
Single Black Women, Working-Class Black Families, and
New York State’s Wayward Minor Laws, 1917–1928 182
CHAPTER 7
A Rather Bright and Good-Looking Colored Girl
Black Women’s Sexuality, “Harmful Intimacy,” and Attempts
to Regulate Desire, 1917–1928 204
III
Rehabilitation, Respectability, and Race
CHAPTER 8
I Don’t Live on My Sister, I Living of Myself
Parole, Gender, and Black Families, 1905–1935 237
CHAPTER 9
She Would Be Better off in the South
Sending Women on Parole to Their Southern Kin, 1920–1935 253
CONCLUSION
Thank God I Am Independent One More Time 271
Notes 279&Bibliography 335&Index 355
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illustrations
Sketch of Lavinia Johnson’s beating 76
Sketch of the attempted lynching of Alexander Robinson 80
Victoria Earle Matthews 97
Victoria Matthews and helpers at the White Rose Mission 103
Children of the White Rose Mission 104
Frances Kellor 112
“The Problem of the Young Negro Girl from the South” 115
Odessa Crouch 144
Annie Howard 145
Giselle Hopkins 147
Evelyn Pitts 153
Grace P. Campbell 162
Bedford’s interracial nursery 198
Carrie Hall 265