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Community and Self-Help
If the external pressures of racism brought African Americans together to form entire towns like Boley, Oklahoma (see #1: Community as Place), they also gave rise to small-scale communities like lodges and fraternal organizations. In the family histories Charles Johnson included in The Negro in Chicago, excerpted in Theme II: MIGRATIONS, we saw how prevalent membership in such organizations was among all strata of the black community. In this exchange between brothers Samuel and A. I. Dixie, we learn how such organizations functioned in Florida in the 1920s and '30s. The Knights of Pythias provided money for funerals, and the Order of Emancipated Americans sent people to sit at the bedsides of sick members. Since the nineteenth century, groups like them throughout the nation (see The Making of African American Identity, Vol. II) helped African Americans through difficult times. They also raised the ire of some whites, who resented black Americans seizing control over their own lives. The testimony of the Dixie brothers confirms the strength and value of these organizations, but it also raises questions about their durability as African Americans became more integrated into the mainstream. Note A. I. Dixie's reference to the role lodges played in helping African Americans flee the South. (3 pages.)
Discussion questions
- What were the principal sources of cohesion for the fraternal organizations?
- What did the fraternal organizations do for their members?
- What forces weakened fraternal organizations?
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Framing Questions
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How has the African American community defined itself? |
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How has the African American community functioned in the lives of its members?
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How have changing notions of African American identity affected definitions of African American community?
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Images: Knights of Pythias lodge and the home of W. W. Andrews, Jacksonville, Florida, ca. 1919, photograph (detail). State Library and Archives of Florida. Permission pending.
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