The
Southern Conference on African American Studies, Inc. (SCAASI) took place
during February 12-14 in Montgomery, Alabama at the downtown Doubletree Hotel
hosted by Alabama State University.
The SCAASI began in 1989 stemming
from an African American History and Culture program at Texas Southern
University. The successful conference led to the preservation African American
History and Culture through academic fellowship and intellectual presentations
for the past 35 years.
With the theme of
Remembering Booker T. Washington scholars, professors and students from HBCU’s
and PWI’s represented themselves or their respectful universities and colleges.
Scholars submit academic study papers prior to attending the conference and are
selected to present in panel discussions on a range of topics.
Session H hosted on Thursday was titled “Lady
Wizards: Women Revolutionaries in Education and Economic Philosophy in the Age
of Booker T. Washington and Beyond”.
Dr. Sheena Harris, assistant
professor of history at Tuskegee University presented a study with the title,
“Margaret Murray Washington and Coeducation”. Harris explained that Margaret
Washington was the third wife of Booker T. Washington and that “she received
much of her education from Quakers,” she said.
“Margaret’s pursuits
[were similar to what] others would call feminism.” Washington’s wife was also
“big on expanding W.E.B. Du Bois’ ideology of ‘The Talented Tenth’.
Harris stated that after completing
her liberal arts education from Fisk University in Tennessee 1889 after 8 years
she went on to Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama. She moved
from an English teacher to “Lady Principle” in 2 years. Washington kept her
same ideals and pushed her thoughts of co-education to others at Tuskegee.
Co-education was the belief that “domesticity is just as important as
agricultural training,” Harris said.
The idea of grooming a black woman
was not highly respected amongst whites during this time period due to the
stigmas attached to black men and women. Yet, despite this Margaret chose to
demand that her ideals be heard and understood.
As “Lady Principal” at
Tuskegee she worked to expand the university and negate the negative
stereotypes attached to black women in reference to respectability and
domesticity according to Harris.
Dr. Ashley Robertson, Curator and
Director of Bethune Foundation and assistant professor of history at
Bethune-Cookman University presented a study also. Her study was titled: “A
Diamond in Daytona: Mary McLeod Bethune’s Extension of Booker T. Washington’s
Legacy and the Founding of Daytona Literary and Industrial School for the
Training of Negro Girls.”
Robertson describes that Mary
McLeod was inspired to create a school for young women of color because of
Booker T. Washington’s creation of Tuskegee Institute. “We talk about the
beaches and weather but not race relations,” she said. “Florida has a deep
issue with race relations; Mary knew the people [in the south] would need
schooling.”
She further explains that Bethune
once had a dream that Booker T. appeared in, in which he gave her a diamond.
This dream led her to be further inspired to create a school for black youth.
With the help of wealthy, well connected donors and contributors Bethune’s
dream came into fruition.
In 1911 the first
building on campus was erected, “Faith Hill” despite the school being founded
in 1904. The following year Booker T. visited the campus with his entourage,
took a tour of the campus and dined with McLeod and her students. This pivotal
moment solidified her vision for the school and proved that her creation of the
school was a great success.
The Daytona Literary
and Industrial School for the Training of Negro Girls flourished and grew
bigger and stronger due to Bethune’s guidance and eventually was named a
university in 2007. Her work as an educator and political activist places her
on the same plateau as Booker T.
Both influential
individuals had “international appeal”, “understood what it meant to know
slavery”, “were hard workers”, and both “built their schools with nothing”
according to Robertson. Robertson also noted that both individuals were also
advisors to U.S. presidents.
Dr. Kimberly Brown,
assistant professor of history at Alabama State University lastly presented a
study with the title: “The Negro Woman as Our Standard: Maryrose Reeves Allen
and the Founding of the Department of Physical Education for Women at Howard University.
According to Brown’s
research Maryrose Reeves Allen came to Howard in 1925 and this same year she
established the Department of Physical Education for Women which focused on the
black women’s image and self-representation. Reeves Allen was inspired
indefinitely by Booker T. and his ideals on “inspiring self-respect and virtue
through bathing” oneself physically and mentally.
“Slavery left us in a
dangerous and sad predicament,” said Reeves Allen. With this statement as an
example of what she challenged, Reeves Allen worked to negate inaccurate images
of black women. She stressed the importance of creating positive standards of
beauty.
Brown believes that
Reeves Allen created a part of the modern aesthetic of blackness due to her
ideals. She challenged the “standards of beauty of the white man”.
Reeves Allen noted that
“physical condition”, “self-awareness”, “seeking balance”, understood what was
“unique to our girl’s needs” and more. Her combination of these ideals was
modern for the time because it was a complicated society. She also stressed the
importance of “beauty of the mind” and stated that “racism kills all the beauty
in society.”
In her writings and
works Reeves Allen proved the fact that beauty was powerful and that when used
in a good manner, it “breeds positivity”. She was also a bit ahead of her time
because she connected global ideals within the beauty-health paradigm: “beauty
varies from people to people and from time to time,” Reeves Allen said.
Her ideals also
critiqued the media since specific images of movie stars within newspapers and
magazines perpetuated a white women’s standard of beauty. She did not agree
with this and believed this was detrimental to black women’s concept of self
according to Brown.
As a whole the Lady
Wizards: Maryrose Reeves Allen, Mary McLeod Bethune and Margaret Washington
were influenced by Booker T. yet they shifted his ideals to match their own.
The Lady Wizards prove that black women and their thoughts and challenges
during specific time periods were an important part of black history which is
sometimes forgotten by many over time. All three scholars each received their
undergraduate degrees from illustrious HBCUs: Dr. Sheena Harris (Florida
A&M University; 2006), Dr. Ashley Robertson (Bowie State University; 2008)
and Dr. Kimberly Brown (FAMU).
For more information on
the next SCAASI event visit www.scaasi.org.
Awesome!
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