"THE CURING OF ILLS": African American Women Activists at the Intersections of Race, Class, and Gender During the Great Migration

Abstract

This article examines the interplay of race, class, and gender in early twentieth-century Pittsburgh through the activism of African American women reformers in community institutions such as the local Urban League and NAACP chapters. These women felt the twin pressures of race and gender restrain their career prospects. Excluded from positions of leadership in mainstream Black organizations, they also encountered racial barriers to a host of occupations considered appropriate for white women only, such as nursing and teaching. Despite these obstacles, Black women reformers helped advance social justice and mitigate health and housing crises that emerged during the Great Migration. Moreover, their grassroots engagement with poor and working-class African Americans bridged regional and class divisions, fostered racial solidarity, and built up the institutional strength of Black communities. Through this analytical lens, this article offers a reappraisal of Black reform work that more fully historicizes it.