Cultural & Ethnic Studies The Whole Matter Revolves around the Self-Respect of My People Black

256 Chapter 12 The Whole Matter Revolves around the of My People Black Conservative Women in the Civil Rights Era Joshua Eastern Kentucky University INTRODUCTION In response to Brown . Board of Education , the foundational case reflecting decades of hard work by civil rights activists to public education , famed Black novelist remarked , I regard the ruling of the Supreme Court as To her , the whole matter revolves around the of my I see no tragedy in being too dark to be invited to a White social Black schools , run and operated by Black communities , were ideal , and the idea of holding integrated White schools as the standard bearer ran against her racial pride . Though joined many White conservatives in opposing Brown , her reasons were altogether different , as was her distinctly Black brand of conservatism . Indeed , it was Black conservatives of the , not the decade mainstream civil rights leadership , who in many ways were closer to the more militant Black Nationalists of the in their joint emphasis on Black and a racial pride that rejected integration as a . By focusing on conservative Black women during the civil rights era , this chapter highlights the myriad of political ideologies that have always existed within Black communities . This diversity of political expression , however , has not always been fully , Court Order Ca Make Races Mix , Orlando Sentinel , August 11 , 1955 . Ibid .

257 delineated by scholars . Almost all of the leading scholarship of the conservative movement that arose in the ignores Black conservatives completely , and treats conservatism as a Similarly , more specific accounts of conservative women focus exclusively on White women , and the few accounts of Black conservatives since the have almost exclusively centered on Black men like Supreme Court Justice Clarence However , as Christopher Alan , a Black law professor and , has noted , the failure to appreciate Black conservatism as a bona fide intellectual movement has particularly tragic In addition to active historical agents , ignoring those on the of Black thought has the effect of turning Black politics into a monolithic force that minimizes its rich complexities on both the Left and Right . Hanes Walton notes that this predominant narrative of Black politics is a static one . It paints Black party supporters as robots , unthinking and under numerous ' By focusing on conservative Black women , we add nuance to the literature on both Black politics and the rise of conservatism during the volatile and . Thomas with Mary , Chain Reaction The Impact of Race , Rights , and Taxes on American Politics ( New York Norton and , 1991 ) Lisa , Suburban Warriors The Origins of the New American ( Princeton , Princeton University Press , 2002 ) Matthew , The Right Moment Ronald Reagans First and the Decisive Turning Point in American Politics ( New York Oxford University Press , 2004 ) Allan , White Protestant Nation The Rise of the American Conservative Movement ( New York Atlantic Monthly Press , 2008 ) Rebecca , Women of the New Right ( Temple University Press , 1987 ) Marjorie , Gender and America Right Turn , in Bruce and Julian , Rightward Bound Making America Conservative in the ( Cambridge , MA Harvard University Press , 2008 ) Joseph and Brad , Challenging the Civil Rights Establishment of a New Black Vanguard ( 1993 . Christopher Alan , Saviors or The Promise and Peril of Black Conservatism , from Booker ' Washington to Rice ( Boston Beacon Press , 2008 ) Hanes Walton , Invisible Politics Black Political Behavior ( Albany State University of New York Press , 1985 ) 137 .

258 There have always existed elements of conservatism within Black Most historians point to Booker Washington as the quintessential Black conservative . Rather than directly challenging the rise of segregation in the South , Washington took up the Jim Crow rhetoric of separate but equal , arguing that in all things purely social Whites and Blacks can be as separate as the Indeed , to Washington , segregation was a system that Black educators , businessmen , and community leaders could work from the inside for the advancement of Black communities . It was the segregated state of Alabama , after all , that provided state funding for Institute ( a school run by African Americans for African Americans ) It was also segregation that provided a space in almost every Southern city for the formation of thriving Black business districts . As head of both and the National Negro Business League , Washington emphasized a distinctly conservative notion of centered on the ideals of the value of hard work , individual initiative , personal responsibility ( pull yourself up by your own bootstraps ) capitalism , and entrepreneurship ?

Many of Washington ideas were taken up by Marcus Garvey Universal Negro Improvement Association ( in the . Though not as deferential to Whites in his rhetoric as Washington , Garvey also stressed the importance of Black ownership , joining Washington in integration as the ultimate goal of Black Americans . Firmly committed to free enterprise , the operated , or helped fund , thousands of small businesses across the country . And , rather than supporting integrated public Deborah , Conservatives , in Chip , Eyes Challenging the Right Backlash ( Boston South End Press , 1995 ) 294 and Yvette , Political Leadership in the Rights Era , in Ollie Johnson III and Karin Stanford , Black Political Organization in the Era ( New Brunswick , Rutgers University Press , 2002 ) 200 Peter , Introduction , in Peter , Black Conservatism Essays in Intellectual and Political History ( New York Garland Publishing , 1999 ) Lewis Randolph , Neoconservatives in the United States Responding with Progressive , in James Jennings , Race and Politics New Challenges and Responses for Black Activism ( London Verso , 1997 ) 149 . Robert , Up from History The Life of Booker ' Washington ( Cambridge Harvard University Press , 2009 ) 125 , 229 .

259 school systems in Northern cities , the urged urban Black families to send their children to schools , whose curriculum would focus on history and practical vocational training . Unlike integration , which Garvey believed was underpinned by internalized racism that implicitly accepted an inherent superiority of White spaces , a thriving network of businesses and schools would foster Black pride and Garvey brand of Black Nationalism would later be reflected in the Nation of Islam , which similarly emphasized capitalist enterprise and racial pride in its of Black ownership of businesses and schools . The Nation of Islam also held to a traditionally conservative set of gender and family norms that had clearly delineated roles for men , and protectors of their families , and women , whose role was to support their man from inside the home . Labeled by one scholar as the Negro version of the radical right , the Nation of Islam adamantly rejected abortion rights . Its largest publication , Muhammad Speaks , published cartoons of birth control pill bottles marked with a skull and crossbones , and feminists as proponents of Black AND RADICAL INDIVIDUALISM Though a author of the Harlem Renaissance , shifted her focus toward politics in the . In 1946 , she joined actress and singer Etta and Colin Grant , Negro with a Hat The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey ( New York Oxford University Press , 2010 ) In the Name of Muhammad Louis and the Nation of Islam ( Duke University Press , 1996 ) Ula Yvette Taylor , The Promise of Patriarchy Women and the Nation of Islam ( Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press , 2017 ) David , The Intellectuals and the Discontented Classes Some Further , in Daniel Bell , The Radical Right The New American Right , expanded edition ( Garden City , 1963 ) 118 Loretta Ross , Women and Abortion , in James and . Theorizing The Visionary Pragmatism of Black Women ( New York , 1993 ) 153 .

260 famed pianist May Lou Williams in opposing the of Harlem Democratic congressman , Adam Clayton Powell . Chief among her decision to endorse the Black Republican candidate , Grant Reynolds , was perceived communist support for Powell . used her influence and connections in Harlem to secure support for Reynolds , and even worked in the trenches licking envelopes and passing out Republican pamphlets . Though Reynolds lost , the election was the closest of Powell year Like Pittsburgh Courier journalist George , perhaps the most Black conservative of the , who wrote multiple pieces for the National Review , generally approved of the of the early Cold Similar to White libertarians Isabel and Rose Wilder Land , writings emphasized an extreme commitment to individualism and According to biographer Robert , with the rise of hysteria in the , obsessive individualism morphed into a mild paranoia against perceived communist infiltration of American politics . Throughout the and , criticized government welfare programs and called for the dismantling of the New Deal fierce individualism could be seen decades prior in her essay How It Feels to Be Colored Me , a celebration of her Black , segregated hometown of , Florida , and her own feminist identity that flourished despite White society attempts to define her . essay is a celebration of not just her identity as a proud , Black , Southern woman , but of herself as an individual . When White men discriminated against her , she did want to protest to make them 11 Valerie Boyd , Wrapped in Rainbows The Life of ( New York Scribner , 2003 ) Robert , A Literary Biography ( University of Illinois Press , 1980 ) 303 Carla Kaplan , A Life In ( New York , 2002 ) 441 Wil , King of the Cats The Life and Times Clayton Powell , New York , 2006 ) 141 . 12 , Introduction , 13 David and Linda , Rose Wilder Land , and on War , Race , the State and Liberty , Independent Review , Spring 2008 ) 553 . 14 , 329 .

261 accept her , but rather it was they who were negatively impacted How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company ?

It beyond The ultimate goal of communism , equality , per , would only bring her , the cosmic , down to earth like everyone allied herself most closely with the Senator Robert Taft of Ohio , the author of the infamous Act that placed unions under federal regulation . During the 1952 Republican primary , she became Taft most vocal Black supporter , favoring him over the party moderate favorite , Dwight Eisenhower . After she wrote an article featured in the American Legion monthly magazine , the Saturday Evening Post offered to write an article laying out her conservative politics . In addition to stating her approval of the Act , argued that the New relief program was the biggest weapon ever placed in the hands of those who sought power and She continued , claiming that because of such welfare programs , Black men became dependent upon the Government for their daily bread and ultimately became servants to the will of the Little White 15 Like many White conservatives , believed that accepting a government was demeaning toward one dignity . A product of the radical pride generated by the Harlem Renaissance , was particularly sensitive to any policy that she believed lessened the dignity and of African Americans . Her fierce stemmed from the same source . While she opposed Jim Crow laws and legalized were affronts to Black placed her most vehement hatred on communism , which she believed threatened the individuality and that was critical to Black identity . This emphasis on , with its roots in the early twentieth century in the ideas espoused by Booker Washington and Marcus Garvey , was characteristic of many Black conservatives in the and . 15 , How It Feels to Be Colored Me , in Alice Walker , When I Am and Then Again When I Am Looking Mean and Impressive A Reader ( New York Feminist Press at , 1979 ) 15 , A Negro Voter Sizes Up Taft , Saturday Evening Post , December , 1951 , Kaplan , Boyd , 411 , 335 , 570 .

262 This standpoint was also at the root of her opposition to Brown . Board of Education . She believed the court claim that Black schools were inferior to their White counterparts was a direct attack on the Black community itself . The whole matter revolves around the of my people , wrote in a letter published in the Orlando Sentinel . She further stated , I regard the ruling of the Supreme Court as insulting , particularly its claim that separating Black children from Whites generates a feeling of Drawing on the ideas of Marcus Garvey , which many Black Nationalists would also later employ in the , argued that there are adequate Negro schools and prepared instructors in many Black neighborhoods , and to suggest that White schools were inherently superior made the decision insulting rather than honoring my Unlike many White conservatives who opposed the decision on the basis of racist fears of integration , racial pride and strict adherence to Black were the driving forces behind her opposition to was not the only Black conservative woman on the national stage during the . Thomas , the assistant chief of the Republican National Minorities Division , traveled over miles across the country touting the virtues of the Grand Old Party throughout the Another was North Carolina Central University professor Helen Edmonds . With a in History from the Ohio State University and as the first Black woman to become dean of a graduate school , Edmonds was one of the most and published Black historians of the . Like , Edmonds scholarship was rooted in her firm belief in Black dignity and , and her numerous books emphasized the contributions of Black men and women to the development of American 17 , Court Order Ca Make Races Mix , Orlando Sentinel , August 11 , 1955 Kaplan , 611 Boyd , 336 . 18 Charles Thomas and Frances , The 1955 Presidential Campaign ( Washington , Institute , 1960 ) 239 Ticker Tape , Jet , January 29 , 1959 , 11 . 19 Helen Edmonds , The Negro and Fusion Politics in North Carolina , Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press , 1951 ) Helen Edmonds , Black Faces in High Places Negroes in Government ( New York Brace , 1971 )

263 BLACK CONSERVATIVE WOMEN IN THE AND 19605 Edmonds became the first Black woman to second the nomination of a presidential candidate when she appeared before the Republican National Convention in San Francisco to endorse Eisenhower in The speech was made possible by the diligence of the president highest ranking Black staffer , Frederic Morrow , who convinced his party to place her in a prominent position in the nationally televised convention Though some believed it would help soften the image of the party with Black voters , some White Republicans were vocal in their opposition to the selection . Edmonds , delegation from North Carolina was adamant in its disapproval , telling Eisenhower officials that it would lead to the defeat of the only Republican congressman in the upcoming elections , who needed the votes of racist Whites . After the convention , Edmonds became one of the Republican Party most demanded Black speakers throughout the rest of the campaign . One field operative told party bosses that the reaction to her speech was so positive that the Republican National Committee ( should request that she conduct tours across the country on behalf of Over the course of the fall , Edmonds traveled more than miles , delivered over fifty speeches , and participated in numerous television and radio Pero , African American History Reconsidered ( Champaign University of Illinois Press , 2010 ) 21 Morrow Diary , Republican National Convention 1956 , Folder Diary Frederic Morrow ( Box , Frederic Morrow Papers , Dwight Eisenhower Presidential Library David Nichols , A Matter of Justice Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution ( New York Simon and , 2007 ) 136 . 22 Drew Pearson , Washington , Times ( Alabama ) August 26 , 1956 . 23 Eight Who Made Talks Represent of Eisenhower Backers , New York , August 23 , 1956 Letter , Val Washington to Helen Edmonds , 30 August 1956 , Folder Correspondence . Republican Nat Committee , expense accounts and , Box , Helen Edmonds Papers , Rare Book , Manuscript , and Special Collections Library , Duke University .

264 During an October tour of Pennsylvania , she gave eleven speeches , including an appearance before an audience of over White women in . For the rest of the month through Election Day , she conducted campaign stops throughout the Midwest and East In light of Edmonds service to his campaign , Eisenhower appointed her as a United Nations alternate delegate in 1958 . During her tenure , which included numerous trips to Europe and Africa , Edmonds public remarks centered on two issues and Black civil Though it ignored African Americans , a 1963 study of the emergence of the Radical Right by Seymour argued that women were much more likely to oppose communism than men and that many of the leading organizations active in local communist efforts were led by While focus was exclusively on White America , Black women like and Helen Edmonds joined other conservative women of the era , like Phyllis , in embracing an adamant communist And while they opposed Jim Crow , communism was an equally unsavory philosophy because it would take away the individuality and that had long provided a source of strength and dignity to Black communities . 24 Letter , Helen Edmonds to Allen James Low , December 15 , 1956 , Folder Correspondence . Republican National Committee . Letter from Rank and File Persons During and Following Edmonds Campaign Tour , 1956 , Box , Helen Edmonds Papers , Rare Book , Manuscript , and Special Collections Library , Duke University . 25 Letter , Helen Edmonds to Val Washington , October 23 , 1956 , Folder Correspondence . Republican Nat Committee , expense accounts and itineraries , Box , Helen Edmonds Papers , Rare Book , Manuscript , and Special Collections Library , Duke University . 25 Letter , Helen Edmonds to Robert Grey , September 20 , 1957 , Folder Correspondence . White House and the Executive Dept . of the Government , 1957 , Box , Helen Edmonds Papers , Rare Book , Manuscript , and Special Collections Library , Duke University Parker , The History of The Links , 24 . 27 Seymour Martin , The Sources of the Radical Right , in Daniel Bell , The Radical Right The New American Right , expanded edition ( Garden City , 1963 ) 303 . 23 Donald , and Grassroots Conservatism A Womans Crusade ( Princeton , Princeton University Press , 2005 )

265 In 1960 , Edmonds returned to the campaign circuit , becoming North Carolina chair of Women for Her enthusiasm was far less than it had been four years prior . Edmonds complained throughout the fall that Richard Nixon stupidly run campaign failed to make any efforts to utilize Black Republicans such as In private correspondence , she argued that Republicans lost because they never created a rival to John Kennedy division of Civil Rights Edmonds was also critical of the absence of any relationship whatsoever between local Black women and the North Carolina State Federation of Republican Women , which she complained was a segregated This episode reveals a critical divergence between Black and White conservatives throughout the civil rights era . Though they may have been opposed to New Deal programs or actively participated in the fight against communism , most Black conservatives were not allies with White conservatives . A series of exchanges between Helen Edmonds and various leaders of the National Review , a prominent conservative magazine , is particularly revealing . In the late , Edmonds received a form letter from the magazine that repeated common racist against civil rights , stating that every thinking Southerner owes it to the way of life we hold sacred to subscribe to the only Northern magazine that consistently upholds Southern It also touted a recent endorsement by the rabid segregationist Alabama congressman , Frank . An outraged Edmonds responded to William Buckley , the magazine publisher and leading conservative ideologue through the 29 North Carolina , Folder Alphabetical Files . Political Material . Addresses , Reports , Memoranda , of the Republican Nat Comte , Box , Helen Edmonds Papers , Rare Book , Manuscript , and Special Collections Library , Duke University . Letter , Val Washington to Helen Edmonds , December , 1960 , Folder Correspondence . Republican Party , Box , Helen Edmonds Papers , Rare Book , Manuscript , and Special Collections Library , Duke University . 31 Letter , Helen Edmonds to . Charles Dean , November 29 , 1960 , Folder Correspondence . Republican Party , Box , Helen Edmonds Papers , Rare Book , Manuscript , and Special Collections Library , Duke University . 32 Letter , Helen Edmonds to Claire Williams , January 24 , 1961 , Folder Correspondence . Republican Party , Box , Helen Edmonds Papers , Rare Book , Manuscript , and Special Collections Library , Duke University .

266 19805 , writing that I can not wish your magazine success . I wish no instrument of mass communication success which sets one class of citizen apart from another , and grants the majority class rights and privileges solely on the basis of the color of their The curt and condescending reply from Buckley sister , Maureen , simply stated her deep sadness over Edmonds and lamented the impossibility of discussing the segregation issue rationally with Black women . As a Black woman who supported the end of segregation in the South , of her conservative was dismissed by a leading conservative ideologue in the same fashion as other , more liberal , African Americans . Indeed , while Edmonds remained a vocal Republican through the , she was never accepted by the leading intellectual leaders of the emerging White conservative During the late , Edmonds continued to differ with White conservatives on issues of race . By 1968 , in the wake of the increasingly militant responses of young African Americans , White conservatives rallied around the central theme of law and Phyllis , for example , blamed riots on various and New Left groups saturated by Communists , and called for the arrests of Black Nationalists Rap Brown and Stokely Edmonds , on the other hand , recognized that crime is a problem everywhere , but , rather than placing blame on African Americans , she argued that its roots were found in high unemployment . Instead of targeting Black militants , she called for a sensible program to help find Apart from her opposition to the overtly racist appeals of the White conservative movement , however , Edmonds sometimes mirrored its rhetoric during the on other issues . Following the uproar over Daniel Patrick report that blamed many 33 Charles Randolph to Friend , Letter , Helen Edmonds to William Buckley , November , 1957 , and Maureen Buckley to Helen Edmonds , November 19 , 1957 , all in Folder Correspondence . General , Box , Edmonds Papers . 34 Carol , The Sweetheart of the Silent Majority The Biography of ( Garden City , 1981 ) 35 Helen Edmonds , Blacks Have Been Too Long in the , of One Major Political Party , October 29 , 1972 , Folder Alphabetical Files . Political Material . Republican Party , Box , Helen Edmonds Papers , Rare Book , Manuscript , and Special Collections Library , Duke University .

267 problems in the Black community on the failure of the Black family , Edmonds argued that Black do not like sic writings and findings but they bear great Discussing our Negro unemployed , she emphasized personal responsibility and , contending that some are underlings because they do not want to avail themselves of the possibilities of all training which is presently Moreover , she claimed that Lyndon Johnson programs did not do anything but teach young African Americans to go out into the community and raise the In further reflection of her conservative , middle class sensibilities , she also believed liberals encouraged activists to stand on the doorsteps of the mayors offices with these negotiable demands , organize tenants not to pay rent , or welfare mothers to sustain their It is important to note , however , that her remarks in support of memo blaming Black unemployment on Blacks themselves were written in a private letter to another Black Republican from North Carolina , Nixon advisor Robert . Brown . Regarding her public remarks on civil rights , law and order , and the race problem , Edmonds was always careful not to use the same racially charged rhetoric as her White conservative counterparts . In private conversations with other African Americans , the tradition that informed much of her ideology was more explicit in its criticisms of Blacks themselves . Indeed , introspective critiques of African Americans played a significant role in the rhetoric of Black Nationalists from Marcus Garvey to Malcolm Edmonds criticisms , however , were never apparent in her public statements or conversations with White conservatives . Maintaining Black dignity tempered her public statements regarding Black life and culture . Political scientist Lewis Randolph suggests that while Black conservatives may have leaned right on matters outside of Jim Crow , most Black conservatives were in the Black mainstream in their embrace of the goals of the civil rights movement . The 35 Letter , Helen Edmonds to Robert Brown , December , 1969 , Folder Correspondence . White House and the Executive Dept . of the Government , Box , Helen Edmonds Papers , Rare Book , Manuscript , and Special Collections Library , Duke University .

268 movement , particularly during its nonviolent , phase of the and early , was predominantly led by the Black middle class , was saturated with traditional religious undertones , and played to middle class moral sensibilities that made it easy for Black conservatives to embrace its goals . Helen Edmonds frequently , and publicly , stated her support for the end of legalized segregation and other forms of overt Edmonds rhetoric against the War on Poverty and denunciations against militants in the placed her clearly on the right of the political spectrum . However , as her experience with the National Review demonstrated , her opposition to legalized racial inequality in the South placed her outside of the emerging White conservative movement . Moreover , unlike many White conservatives , Edmonds refused to partake in anything she viewed as . While she remained a conservative throughout the rest of her life , there remained tension between her politics and what she perceived as overt racism within the emerging White conservative movement . Such was the case with many Black Republicans as the party embraced the father of modern conservatism , Barry Goldwater , in the 1964 presidential election . While a few Black conservatives like George joined Goldwater and other White conservatives in opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , most split with their party in that So far had African Americans been driven out of the party , a 1964 pamphlet highlighting the party Black staff featured only secretaries and mail office staff . 39 Elaine Jenkins , who attended the 1964 Republican convention in San Francisco , recalled that the experience was lonely and She 37 Randolph , Neoconservatives in the United States , 150 . 38 was eventually fired in 1964 after he endorsed Goldwater , and he subsequently joined the John Birch Society . George , Views and Reviews , New Pittsburgh , August , 1964 George , The Case Against the Civil Rights Bill , in Jeffrey Leak , to the Right Selected Essays of George ( University of Tennessee Press , 2001 ) 97 Maria , George Black No Black Conservative Socialist Past , Western Journal of Black Studies , 1988 ) 55 . 39 Republican National Committee , Who is George Lewis ?

April 1964 , Folder Republican Party and the South Negro Vote , Box 47 , Records of the Democratic National Committee ( Series I ) Lyndon Johnson Presidential Library .

269 complained that There was no inclusion of Black Republicans , and that White staffers treated the few of us present as truly BLACK CAPITALISM AND CONSERVATIVE STRAINS OF BLACK POWER Two years after the nomination of Barry Goldwater , Black Power arose as a dominant theme in Black politics . While popular ( mis ) conceptions today view Black Power as exclusively a movement of the Left , it brought with it a resurgence of conservative Black Nationalism reminiscent of Marcus During the , a new generation of Black conservatives ( and Black Leftists ) took up the banners of determination and , and turned away from the prevailing liberal emphasis on integration as the solution to Black Floyd and Roy of the Congress of Racial Equality ( CORE ) the group that had previously organized the Freedom Rides , were influential in turning the organization toward conservative Black Nationalism . Under their leadership , CORE stressed the need to create Black owned businesses , called for autonomous , school districts , and called Black men and women to look toward themselves , not the federal government , for Surprisingly , some White conservatives also believed that Black Nationalism could be used to make inroads for the Republican Party in traditionally Democratic neighborhoods . The National in 1967 that hard work and were the keys to Black economic betterment , and praised Booker Washington for teaching that respect and access to jobs must be earned by the Negroes Elaine Brown Jenkins , Jumping Double Dutch A New Agenda for Blacks and the Republican Part ( Silver Spring , Beckham House Publishers , 1996 ) 41 Manning and , Let Nobody Turn Voices of Resistance , Reform , and Renewal ( and , 2000 ) 373 . 42 , 103 , 110 . 43 and , 373 Joseph , Waiting 777 the Midnight Hour A Narrative History of Black Power in America ( New York Henry Holt , 2006 ) 277 . 44 George Nash , The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945 ( New York Basic Books , 1976 ) 282 .

270 Clarence , head of the Minorities Division , emphasized to his White colleagues that never before has the Negro community been more insistent upon determination and the Minorities Division presents the Republican philosophy to the Negro community leadership in this This notion of Black capitalism and reliance would also become the centerpiece of Richard Nixon Black strategy in 1968 and during his subsequent terms in office . As a presidential candidate in 1968 , Nixon led his party to embrace what he termed During a campaign radio address Nixon put forth his proposal to increase government support for businesses . He attempted to pacify the concerns of White listeners by suggesting that much of the Black militant talk these days is actually in terms far closer to the doctrines of free enterprise than to those of the in their usage of the terms of pride , ownership , private enterprise , capital , and Nixon further argued that new emphasis should be placed on Black ownership , and promised a new age of Black Power in the best constructive sense of that often If African American communities controlled their own small businesses and had local control of their own schools , then the country would see a rebirth of pride and individualism and This rhetoric appealed to not only many Whites , including South Carolina Strom , who found comfort in its emphasis on and on integration , but it also nearly mirrored the same language used by many Black conservatives . Nixon , according to James Farmer , the former leader of the Freedom Rides who later accepted a position in Nixon administration , commended the presidential candidate supreme act of optation in taking up the banner of Black 45 Speech by Clarence before the Republican Big City County Workshop in Washington , March 23 , 1968 , Clarence Papers , Special Collections and Archives , James Branch Library , Virginia Commonwealth University . 45 Nixon for President Committee , Bridges to Human Dignity An Address by Richard Nixon on the Radio Network , April 25 , 1968 , Folder Nixon , Richard , 1968 ( Box 14 , Special Name Series , Papers , Dwight Eisenhower Presidential Library Dean , Principle , and Policy ( Cambridge , MA Harvard University Press , 2001 ) 38 Thomas , Sweet Land of

271 Black capitalism became a policy reality on March , 1969 , when President Nixon signed Executive Order 11458 , establishing the Office of Minority Business Enterprise ( which had the explicit goal of encouraging and funding Black businesses . Upon signing the order , Nixon proclaimed his hope that these businesses would encourage pride , dignity , and a sense of independence throughout Black Though its initial budget was only million , by 1972 its funding had increased to million , and in 1973 to Civil rights scholar Belinda has suggested that the change to a Black Power philosophy also brought the development of a hierarchy and fewer spaces for women leadership , as and paternalistic gender norms plagued many nationalist Tellingly , the first national Black Power conference in Newark ( 1967 ) approved an control resolution , and the newsletter condemned Planned Parenthood support of Black genocidal A closer examination of the conservative faction of Black Nationalism reveals the active participation of many women . For instance , Mary Van , running on a platform centered on Black capitalism , received the endorsement of Republican establishment in her 1972 run for state In 1971 , the sponsored its first National Conference on Business Liberty The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North ( New York Random House , 2008 ) 47 Robert with Lewis Randolph , Business in Black and White American Presidents and Black Entrepreneurs in the Twentieth Century ( New York New York University Press , 2009 ) 127 Jonathan Bean , Big Government and Affirmative Action The Scandalous History of the Small Business Administration ( Lexington University Press of Kentucky , 2001 ) 134 . 48 , 227 . 49 Belinda , How Long ?

How Long ?

Women in the Struggle for Civil Rights ( New York Oxford University Press , 1997 ) 180 . Devin Fergus , Liberalism , Black Power , and the Making Politics , 1980 ( Athens University of Georgia Press , 2009 ) 235 Ross , 153 . 51 Prominent Candidate to Attend Minority Women Meet , Recorder , June 10 , 1972 .

272 for Black Gloria , the granddaughter of Garvey associate Frederick and an economic advisor for Presidents Nixon , Ford , and Reagan , used her influence in all three administrations to promote increased government expenditures for Black Similarly , Elaine Jenkins emphasized that the root of Black entrepreneurship is in the Black community and criticized traditional liberal Black leadership for failing to the development of Black businesses . As an influential member of the Republican National Committee from the through 19805 , she was adamant in her support for the maintenance of party Black capitalism Jewel , who was also active in business circles and served in the Nixon administration , vigorously pressed the to include Black women in its funding . A board member of Trans World Airlines ( TWA ) told the Republican Platform Committee in 1972 that a primary goal of the party should be to direct funding to women and encourage the stimulation of minority 55 , like many Black conservative women , was from the class her father , Francis , was one of the wealthiest Black lawyers in America during the . After becoming the first Black woman admitted to the Chicago Bar Association , became a partner in her father firm by the and served as the national secretary of the National Bar 52 Clipping , Women Confab in Session at Washington , Folder Administration Initiatives Receiving Top Coverage in Minority Publications , Box , Stanley Scott Papers , Gerald Ford Library . 53 Gloria , Political Power , in Clay Smith , Rebels in Law Voices in History of Black Women Lawyers ( Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press , 1998 ) 170 Manning , How Capitalism , updated edition ( London Pluto Press , 2000 ) 151 Gloria . in Jessie Carney Smith , Notable Women , Book 11 ( Detroit Gale Research , 1996 ) 653 . 54 Helena Carney , Elaine Jenkins , in Smith , Notable Women , 331 . 55 Andrew Malcolm , New Face Enters the Boardroom , New York Times , September 10 , 1972 Bring Minorities Into Mainstream , Told , Jet , August 31 , 1972 , 55 Lady Lawyers , Jet , January 22 , 1953 , 15 Lawrence Otis Graham , Our Kind of People Inside America Black ( New York , 1999 ) 194 Clay Smith , Rebels in Law Voices in History of Black Women Lawyers ( Ann Arbor University of Michigan Press , 2000 ) 307 .

273 The membership of The Links Incorporated , a prominent social club headed by Black conservatives Helen Edmonds and Marjorie Parker with chapters across the country , was comprised almost exclusively of middle class Black women . Most Links members were either college educators or the wives of physicians , attorneys , and businessmen . Per a 1966 report , the average Links member was over fifty years old and had at least four years of college education . percent had master degrees . According to Parker , who , like Edmonds , was also an influential college professor , The Links was formed in the to address the ambivalence toward the Black professional class from White society . Many avenues of status , fellowship , and service were closed to women of the class , according to Parker , whose goal was to promote the careers and causes of upper class Black While The Links would advocate some of the same ideals as conservative White in its and opposition to government group focus was to provide social and political advancement for class Black women . Relying on an ideology of reminiscent of Booker Washington , many conservative Black women focused on their own advancement through entrepreneurship and expanded business opportunities . Unlike many conservative White women who often opposed the increased presence of women in the workplace , their Black counterparts in The Links wholeheartedly embraced Black capitalism as the means to obtain their goal of . Though celebrated in middle class Black magazines like Ebony , the Black capitalism initiatives of the late were widely denounced by the Black Nationalist Left . Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver called the Black bourgeoisie puppets of who promised them a vested interest in the capitalist The militant publication referred to conservative Black Nationalism as nationalism , and concluded that their seeming can only be interpreted as It further accused them of siding with Beasts when they 57 Parker , The of The Links , 18 . 53 Eldridge Cleaver Discusses Revolution An Interview from Exile , October 1969 , in Philip , The Black Panthers ( New York Da Capo Press , 1995 ) 109 .

274 praised Whitey free sic , chiefly in order to bolster their own position in racist , Black capitalism also drew little praise from mainstream liberal civil rights leaders , who argued that full economic and social integration , not separation , was the key to Black Bayard complained that Black capitalism adherents are not progressive and let both the federal government and the White community off the hook by placing the burden of advancement solely on Blacks One of the fiercest criticisms of Black ( and White ) conservative came from Martin Luther King , who in the midst of his 1968 Poor People Campaign , noted , It is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he should lift himself up by his own Conservative emphasis on and Black capitalism ignored fundamental structural inequalities , King pronounced , it is even worse to tell a man to lift himself up by his own bootstraps when somebody is standing on the And while Black conservatives from to the Black businesswomen of the emphasized a fierce individualism that lay at the heart of capitalistic entrepreneurship , King emphasized communal responsibility and his firm belief that nobody else in this country has lifted themselves by their own bootstraps alone , so why expect the Black man to do it ?

52 From inception , business women were involved in promoting , and personally receiving , increased benefits from the program . Every Black woman , according to Elaine Jenkins , dreams of having all the opportunities that a White man or woman would have , and argued that under President Nixon , business Jenkins , who was deeply involved with the Republican National Committee during the late and whose father founded the first Black business school at University , 59 Ernie Allen , Nationalism on the Right , Winter 1964 ) 13 . 132 . 51 Bayard , Negroes and the 1968 Elections , in Down the Line The Collected Writings of Bayard ( Chicago Quadrangle Books , 1971 ) 251 . 52 Martin Luther King , Local 1199 , New York City , March 10 , 1968 , in Michael Honey , All Labor Has ( Boston Beacon Press , 2011 ) 53 Carol Morton , Black Women in Corporate America , Ebony , November 1975 , 112 Jenkins , Jumping Double Dutch , 42 .

275 was herself a beneficiary of Black capitalism . Founded in 1970 , Jenkins business consulting firm , One America , became one of the top one hundred businesses within three As Jenkins success story illustrates in critical ways , the Left criticisms of Black capitalists bore truths . Many supporters of Black capitalism were members of the Black bourgeoisie and were more than willing to accept government funding to help develop their own the same time they were critical of welfare dependency among working class African Americans . On the other hand , because of the lack of capital in Black communities and discrimination by banks in granting loans , government assistance was a needed variable in growing the number of businesses . When it served their needs , many Black conservatives were more than willing to embrace a system of government assistance that was essential to the expansion of Black businesses . Not all Black capitalism supporters , however , relied on government assistance in forming their own business ventures . Cora Walker was a prominent conservative Black Nationalist in Harlem during the who held fast to a strict interpretation of determination apart from federal assistance . Walker , who made headlines in the after she became one of the first Black women admitted to the New York State Bar , was also a lifelong Republican . Running as the party candidate in a 1964 state senate race , Walker campaign emphasized and was highly critical of what she described as welfare dependency . Seymour , a Walker supporter , praised her courage for being outspoken in urging Negroes to pull themselves up by their own 55 Walker further solidified her conservative credentials by opposing busing , arguing that 54 The Negro Whether Ward Healer or , Ebony , August 1966 , 97 , Morton , 108 . 55 Cora Walker Pushing Bid for Senatorial Seat , Pittsburgh Courier , April 18 , 1964 Seymour , letter to editor , New York Times , November , 1964 Black Profile , Sacramento Observer , May 14 , 1970 Cora Walker , Pioneering Female New York Attorney , Succumbs at 84 , Jet , August , 2006 , 35 Cora Walker , 84 , Dies , New York , July 20 , 2006 Constance Baker Motley , Equal Justice Under Law An ( New York Macmillan , 1999 ) 206 Martha , To Stand and Fight Tne Struggle for Civil Rights in Postwar New York City ( Cambridge , MA Harvard University Press , 2003 ) 24 .

276 residents of Harlem should maintain and attend their own separate schools . In 1972 she appeared alongside Senator James Buckley , who was recently elected on the Conservative Party ticket , on a slate of Republican National Convention delegates approved by the Manhattan Republican Prominently displaying a picture taken of her and Malcolm in her home , Walker followed his lead as an unflinching advocate of Black , once telling a reporter that African Americans must tell the young people that they must own . We must begin to own some of this real estate called Leading by example , Walker started at the most basic level of need in any community . In 1967 , she spearheaded the creation and opening of the first supermarket in Harlem . The idea was born after she realized that all the grocery stores in Harlem were owned by Whites . According to Walker , I felt that Black people needed to own a supermarket , too , and that a owned business served as an instrument to empowering the Black She wanted Black children who walked by it to say , My mother and father are part owners of that Relying on the tradition in its purest sense , Walker op venture would be funded exclusively by Black investors from Harlem . In 1968 , Walker sold five dollar shares to individual shareholders , and opened the Harlem River Cooperative Supermarket . I even tried to negotiate with the welfare department to allow welfare recipients to buy shares , Walker recalled , but the agency refused . At its grand opening , one shopper remarked that the featured automatic doors , soft music , and fluorescent lovely and that you do find this except in the The store came under immediate attack , however , by Manhattan Democratic borough president , Jack , and Joe of the local food service union , who criticized Walker for hiring outside of the union . Walker argued that the hourly wage paid to her employees was comparable to starting salaries for similar jobs in Harlem , and that 55 Thomas Ronan , Buckley is Named as . Delegate , New York Times , April 12 , 1972 , 284 . 57 A Great and Mighty Walk for Cora Walker , New News , February 11 , 1999 .

277 union labor was too expensive if she wanted to give quality food at fair Within a year of the store opening , led an union picket outside the store front door , in what he claimed was an attempt to unionize the business , not shut it down . Though investors eventually grew to almost by 1969 , after sustained protests , union boycotts , and numerous broken windows and other incidents of vandalism , the store closed its doors in April THE LEGACY OF BLACK CONSERVATIVE WOMEN As seen in the story of Cora Walker , the legacy of Black capitalism was mixed . From 1970 to 1975 , the number of banks more than doubled from to Moreover , by 1983 of the one hundred largest Black corporations had been founded since Between 1969 and 1972 , the gross income of Black businesses increased from billion to billion . However , during this same period , Black businesses accounted for only percent of the total income of all American businesses , and the combined total income of the one hundred largest businesses still placed it behind 284 of Fortune 5005 list of America largest In many ways , despite the sincerity of the expressed devotion of 58 Residents of Harlem Open Their Own Supermarket , New York Times , June , 1968 Rudy Johnson , Harlem Market Thrives as , New York , August 11 , 1968 Richard , Harlem Leader , Main Figure in Strife at Cooperative Market , New York , November 13 , 1970 A Great and Mighty Walk for Cora Walker , New News , February 11 , 1999 Theodore Cross , Capitalism Strategy for Business in the Ghetto ( New York , 1969 ) 59 Sean Dennis , and the Quest for Rights , New York New York University Press , 1991 ) Thomas Boston , Race , Class and ( Boston , 1988 ) 36 . 71 Peter Carroll , It Seemed Nothing Happened The Tragedy and Promise of America in the ( New York Holt , and Winston , 1982 ) 48 , 229 .

278 conservative Black Nationalists to their community , their critics on the Black Left were correct . Black businessmen and women individually from Black capitalism , but it failed to transform the American economic structure or uplift the Black working class . Though Black capitalism was the central issue to most Black conservatives of the , many also advocated educational separatism as well . Cora Walker joined CORE in opposing busing in Harlem to achieve racial integration in public schools opposition to believed it was insulting to suggest that White schools were better for Harlem Black community . Instead , Walker and CORE endorsed a separate school system run independently by African Americans themselves . Many Black conservatives also played dominant roles in the United Negro College Fund ( which they saw as a means to promote . bolstered two foundational issues to many Black conservatives Black schools offered Black communities an institution they could claim as their own , while also providing a venue for Black students to develop the skills necessary to contribute to their betterment through help . Founded in 1944 , elected its first president , Frederick Patterson , who was a Republican and of Booker Washington . In 1972 , another Republican , Arthur Fletcher , who coined the phrase a mind is a terrible thing to waste , became executive director of the organization . Under pressure from his Black conservative supporters , President Nixon nearly doubled federal funding for Black colleges . was also supported by conservative Black women like Helen Edmonds , who served on its national board , and other professors in The Links during the . Between 1960 and 1980 , the majority of money raised by the organization fundraisers was given to , totaling over in As in their support for Black capitalism , Edmonds and The Links were driven by a desire to strengthen Black and racial pride in distinctly Black institutions . As a result of the of , Black conservatives , 72 Letter , Helen Edmonds to Gerald Ford , May 24 , 1974 , Folder Black Leadership , Box 224 , Gerald Ford Vice Presidential Papers , Gerald Ford Library Parker , The History of The Links , 25 , 89 .

279 and the Nixon administration , enrollment in Black colleges grew 50 percent between 1969 and Black conservative women remained active in the party throughout the rest of the . Ethel Allen , a medical doctor , ghetto practitioner , and Republican since the , was drawn to the rigid view of law and order in the late . With her practice in a poor Philadelphia neighborhood , her office was frequently broken into and her primary clients were drug addicts . One day when she was making a house call , four men in the house attempted to mug her , assuming she carried drugs in her black medicine bag . Allen instead pulled out a handgun , forced the men to undress , and ordered the naked robbers to the street before she walked away ( her embrace of gun ownership and is another unexplored link by scholars between Black Nationalists and conservatives ) Following this event , Allen ran for a office on a platform that promised to fight crime and send drug addicts out of the city to places out After winning the election , she became the city first Black councilwoman elected to an Allen remained a vocal conservative and important state Republican throughout the . A founding member of the Black Republican Women National Alliance , she criticized White feminists for being more concerned with burning bras , sexual promiscuity and who on top in their relationships with men than caring for real women issues of economic In denouncing feminism , Allen used the same hyperbolic rhetoric as White conservative women like Phyllis however , like Helen Edmonds , Elaine Jenkins , and other Black conservatives , she wholeheartedly embraced Black capitalism , expanded entrepreneurial opportunities for Black women , and attempts at welfare reform that guaranteed a minimum income . In 1974 , she served as 73 , 74 McCoy , Ethel Allen Philadelphia Politician , Physician and Advocate of the People , Tribune , February 18 , 2003 . Allen Newest Patient The City of Philadelphia , Ebony , May 1973 , 124 , 128 I ve Learned to Survive , Philadelphia Inquirer , Today section , January 1976 . 75 . Allen Newest Patient , 126 .

280 vice chairman of the National Coordinating Council of Black Given her long affiliation with the local and national party , Allen become one of the most powerful Black women ( of either party ) in the country in 1979 when she was appointed Secretary of State . The position earned her a spot on Esquire magazine list of the nation most powerful women , a list that featured mostly Black conservative women remained a small , but vocal , group within the Republican Party into the . Inside the Ronald Reagan administration , conservative Black women continued to press their demands to party leaders . Kansas City businesswoman Inez Kaiser urged President Reagan to follow Nixon example of helping Black business people to keep money in their own Similarly , Elaine Jenkins formed the Council of 100 Black Republicans , a organization made up of the class that continued to advocate on behalf of Black Gloria served as a senior advisor for Ronald Reagan in 1980 and as vice chairman of his administration Advisory Council on Private Sector Initiatives . During the campaign , she praised Reagan approach , and noted both she and the conservative icon talk in terms of entrepreneurship and reducing welfare Reagan also appointed Eileen Gardner , who worked for the conservative Heritage Foundation , to a post in the Department of As they had in the and 75 Letter , Samuel Jackson to Gerald Ford , August 21 , 1974 , Folder Black Republican ( Box , Stanley Scott Papers , Gerald Ford Library . 77 Two States Choose Black Women as Secretaries , Ebony , October 1979 . Ethel Allen Named to Penn . Cabinet Post , Jet , January 25 , 1979 , 78 McCoy , Ethel 78 Booker , Ticker Tape , Jet , August , 1981 , 11 . 79 Republicans , Black Enterprise , August 1984 , 67 Black Republicans What Makes Them Tick ?

Ebony , August 1984 , 74 . James Williams , The State of 1981 ( New York National Urban League , 1981 ) 299 Blacks in Reagan Cabinet ?

Columbus ( Georgia ) November 13 , 1980 Black Women Agenda Luncheon , Washington Informer , October , 1980 . 81 Eileen Gardner , A for Education ( Washington , Heritage Foundation , 1985 ) 281 19705 , these women brought with them a distinctly Black perspective , especially as it related to Black and business . Though there were a number of Black conservatives active throughout the twentieth century , African Americans since the consistently provided the Democratic Party with one of its most stable voting . On the presidential level , since 1964 African Americans have voted upwards of eighty ( and oftentimes ninety ) percent for the Democratic candidate . However , scholars are incorrect in their assumptions that Black conservative politics was relatively inert during the Civil Rights period , or that Black conservatives and the ideas they espoused had little demonstrable effect on the trajectory of American politics during the Black conservatives of the were directly responsible for the massive federal programs that fell under the umbrella of Black capitalism , which was rooted in the Black tradition . By embracing Black capitalism , Black women embraced a limited , but , window of opportunity for individual advancement . Unlike White conservative women , who were opposed to such affirmative action programs designed to assist both African Americans and women , Black conservative women almost unanimously embraced the programs . Virtually no prominent Black conservative of the joined their White counterparts in calling for women to return to the domestic sphere . Black capitalism was by no means universally successful in advancing all Black women , let alone the Black community as a whole rather , it was a vehicle that provided the social and economic advancement that created a small , powerful ( and wealthy ) cadre of conservative Black businesswomen like Elaine Jenkins and Jewel . CONCLUSION By explicitly ignoring conservative Black women in historical narratives of the , we implicitly argue against their existence as legitimate and distinct voices within both the Black community and the emerging conservative movement . Women from to Helen Edmonds to Cora Walker demonstrate that conservative thought 82 Randolph , Neoconservatives in the United States , 150 , ix .

282 existed throughout the Black community during the civil rights era . These women also demonstrate a to the explicitly racist conservatism of the . While some of their rhetoric aligned with their White counterparts , the positions taken by these women were not simply mirror images of White conservatism they were distinctly Black in their emphasis and origins . Conservative Black women in the civil rights era and beyond consistently emphasized the importance of Black business , and a Booker pull yourself up by the bootstraps work ethic , as the keys to racial advancement . At a time when conservative White women back toward a nostalgic past and notion of traditional motherhood , conservative Black women supported policies that furthered their presence in the business world . One could argue these women were nai , that they served only the narrow interests of the Black bourgeoisie , or that they even helped White society preserve structural inequalities . Regardless , though they remained outside of mainstream Black politics and outside the parameters of White , they were active participants in the debates of their time . Discussion Questions . In what ways did Black conservative women and White conservative women differ ?

What role did education play in the ideology of Black conservative women ?

Why was Black capitalism so central to Black conservatism ?

This essay focused on Black conservative definitions of . How might Black Leftists , such as the Black Panther Party , define the term differently ?

Writing Prompt Discuss the virtues and pitfalls of an approach to Black uplift versus the separatist approach of . Research one or two prominent Black conservative women today . In what ways are they similar and different to Black conservative women of the ?