Social Work within the National Association of Colored Women: Clubwomen as Othermothers and Captive Maternals

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Madison, Miriam
- Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies

Abstract

Racial uplift, self-determination, and mutual aid function as mechanisms for Black communities to combat racial discrimination within the United States. Within the earlier formative education of social work, Black women were largely excluded from formal training and thus exercised their own discretion to create networks that allowed them to practice social work informally. This article explores how clubwomen of the early twentieth century performed social work through their commitment to the National Association of Colored Women. More specifically, the focus of this research examines the work of Mary McLeod Bethune and Mary Church Terrell as they contributed to the uplift of Black women and youth. The research draws upon the primary sources of the Mary Church Terrell Papers, Mary McLeod Bethune Papers, and the National Association of Colored Women’s archival materials within online databases. Secondary sources provide context to the evidence of social work, the modality of clubwomen’s practices, and the implications of their roles as Black women within the early civil rights movement of the 1930s and 1940s. By classifying the Black clubwomen as othermothers and captive maternals, one can understand their role as social workers grounded in embodied discourse.

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