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thesis entitled
THE PROFESSIONALI ZATI 0N 0F AFRICAN AMERICAN

SOCIAL WORKERS IN DETROIT, 1916-19140

presented by

Kimberly Jean Andrews

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THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN SOCIAL WORKERS
IN DETROIT, 1916-1940

BY
Kimberly Jean Andrews

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS
Department of History
and Urban Affairs

1994

ABSTRACT

THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN SOCIAL WORKERS
IN DETROIT, 1916-1940

BY
Kimberly Jean Andrews

Between 1916 and 1940 African Americans in Detroit
struggled against racism and social work’s exclusionary
barriers to provide desperately needed social services to
their communities and to establish a professional base for
black social workers in the city; Based largely on the papers
of the Detroit Urban League and the United Community Services
Central Files, this thesis examines the process by which
African Americans constructed a professional social work base
within the larger social, economic, and professional context

of the times.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the people who have assisted
me along the way. I have been truly fortunate to work with
such a terrific group of people at Michigan State University.
Dr. Darlene C1ark.Hine, Dr. Harry Reed, Dr. Lisa Fine, and Dr.
Richard Thomas provided me with the academic, moral, and
spiritual support needed to complete this project. They have
been far more than a master's thesis committee, they have been
good friends to me. ‘As the only person that I encountered.who
would jump up and down with me when I discovered good source
material, I must thank Pat Bartkowski, University Archivist
for Wayne State University; She was exceedingly giving of her
time and energy. And finally, thanks go to Tom Engelhart for

reading and editing several drafts of this thesis.

iii

List of Tables
Introduction
Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Conclusion
Appendix

Bibliography

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Migration and Professionalization

Social Services Amongst African

Americans in Detroit

Alternative Roads of Professional-
Education and Associations
on the Local and National Level

ization:

Social Work in Detroit:

Era

iv

The Depression

12

34

49

61

65

66

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Distribution of African American

Social Workers in Detroit:

March 11, 1930 65
Table 2 Workers in Agencies by Sex and

Color 66

INTRODUCTION

This thesis began to take shape during a two term course
on professionalization taught by Dr. Darlene Clark Hine at
Michigan State University in 1991-92. When I decided to
research African American women in social work, I had no idea
what I was getting into. I quickly discovered that sources
would not jump out at me. Instead, I would have to do a lot of
digging. Detroit, however, has proven to be an ideal city to
use for this type of micro study. The Detroit Urban League
Papers housed at the Bentley Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan,
comprise one of the most extensive League collections in the
country. Additionally, the United Community Service Central
Files located in the Archives of Labor History and Urban
Affairs at Wayne State University's Reuther Library, provides
rich source material on the history of social services in
Detroit.

Indeed, many have already examined the history of social
work; however, few have considered the efforts of African
Americans to provide social services on the professional
level. As several decades of scholarship on African Americans
and women has taught us, one cannot interpret the past without
hearing a diverse range of voices: hence, one cannot
understand the development of professional social work looking
only at the experiences of white men and women. This study
demonstrates that aspiring black social workers wielded the

1

2

collective resources of their communities (locally and
nationally) to overcome otherwise insurmountable racial and
professional barriers. Their efforts opened up professional
opportunities, provided a means by which to dispense
desperately needed social services, and offered the occasion
to engage in "racial uplift" activities. Additionally, this
study illustrates that social work has often held different
meanings for blacks and whites, both as the receivers and as
the providers of service . By examining the
professionalization of African American social workers in
Detroit, I hope to add to the scholarship on African American
women, the Great Migration, the National Urban League, the
history of the professions, and the history of Detroit.

I recognize that there are limits to this type of micro
study. I do not intend to make generalizations about the
experiences of all African American social workers based on my
research. I believe, nonetheless, that this thesis can help
to raise important questions applicable to other industrial

urban centers between 1915 and 1940.

CHAPTER 1

MIGRATION AND PROFESSIONALIZATION

Prior to 1916 there was not a single "trained" African
American social worker in the city of Detroit.1 However,
between 1915 and 1917, Detroit experienced its first major
influx of black migrants from the American south. One
thousand African Americans arrived per month in May, June, and
July of 1916. Between 1910 and 1920 alone, Detroit's black
population swelled 611 percent.2 Not surprisingly, the social
service needs of the city's black communities rapidly
increased.

As a result of the vast urban migration in the first half
of the twentieth century, African Americans living throughout
the country discovered that social work provided professional
opportunity, a means to engage in "racial uplift," and a
chance to dispense desperately needed social services.

However, African Americans, particularly women, faced a series

 

“'Social Work in Detroit" March 11, 1930, Detroit Urban
League Papers, Michigan Historical Collection, Ann Arbor, Michigan
(hereafter cited as DULP-MHC), Box 2 File 1.

2Richard W. Thomas, Life for Us Is What We Make it: Building
Black Community in Detroit, 1915-1945 (Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1992), 26-7.

4

of exclusionary obstacles in their attempt to gain entrance
into the profession. Aspiring black social workers frequently
confronted a scarcity of money for higher education, a lack of
access into colleges and universities due to discrimination
and segregation, and a persistent unwillingness of agencies to
employ black workers or even accept them for training.3 In
these years, social work itself struggled to obtain the
recognition and prestige associated with professional status.

Against the dual tides of racial discrimination and
exclusionary professional barriers, African Americans in
Detroit established a base for social work within the city's
black community between 1916 and 1940. Additionally, they
broke into Detroit's larger social work structure. These
accomplishments are significant for two primary reasons.
First, black social workers provided desperately needed relief
services to thousands (many of whom resided within their
communities) who experienced the social and economic problems
associated with urban migration, economic depression, and
racial discrimination. Second, their efforts demonstrated
that collective resourcefulness and alternative processes of
professionalization could overcome virtually insurmountable
barriers. How African Americans established a professional

social work base within the larger social, economic and

 

’Forrester B. Washington, ”Negroes," The Social Work
Yearbook: A Description of Organized Activities in Social
Work and Related Fields, 1933 ( New York: Russel Sage
Foundation): 313-15.

5
professional context of Detroit between 1916 and 1940, is the
concern of this thesis.

It is impossible to understand the significance of the
professionalization of African American social workers without
consideration of both the circumstances in Detroit, and the
social workers' quest for a professional identity, in the
early years of the twentieth century:‘ Industrialization and
increased job opportunities in northern cities like Detroit
inspired thousands to immigrate from abroad and to migrate
from within the country. By 1920 Detroit became the nation's
fourth largest city with a population of almost one million.

Significantly, the city's black population jumped from under

 

‘Much has been written on the history and
professionalization of social work. Please see, for example,
John H. Ehrenreich, The Altruistic Imagination: A.History of
Social Work and Social Policy in the United States (Ithaca,
N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1985): Roy Lubove, The
Professional Altruist: The Emergence of Social Work as a
Career, 1830-1930 (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press,
1965): James Leiby, A History of Social Welfare and Social
Work in the United States (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1978): Leslie Leighninger, Social WOrk: search for
Identity (New York: Greenwood Press, 1987): Stanley Wenocur
and Michael Reisch, From Charity to Enterprise: The
Development of American Social Work in a Market Economy
(Urbana, IL: The University of Illinois Press, 1989). In
most cases, the struggle of African Americans to gain entrance
into the profession receives little attention. waever, a
recently published comparative study of social and settlement
work in Gary and Indianapolis Indiana by Ruth Cracker gives
considerable attention to African American settlement houses
and workers. Please see, Ruth Hutchinson Cracker, Social Work
and Social Order: The Settlement Movement in TWO Industrial
Cities, 1889-1930 (Urbana, IL: The University of Illinois
Press, 1992).

6
6,000 in 1910 to over 120,000 in 1930.5 'To African Americans
living under the exploitative sharecropping and crop lien
systems, the increased employment opportunities created by the
first WOrld War made Detroit and other northern industrial
cities appear to be the "Promised Land."‘

The majority of African Americans who migrated to Detroit
came from Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi,
and Illinois.’ Some were lured by labor agents stationed in
the south. and. in. other industrial cities.‘ Enticed. by
promises of five to six dollars.a day, thousands came by train

hoping to find employment upon their arrival.’ Often these

 

8By 1930, African Americans comprised the fourth largest
segment of Detroit' s population. Only the native white,
Polish and Canadian communities had larger population bases.
Detroit Urban League File in the United Community Services
Central File, Archives of Labor History and Urban Affairs,
Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan (hereafter cited as
ALHUA-WSU.

‘Thomas, 25-7: Marvin E. Goodwin, Black Migration in
America From 1915 to 1960: An uneasy EXodus (Lewiston, New
York: The Edwin Mellon Press, 1990), 15; Jacqueline Jones,
Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black WOmen, Work and the
.Family,.From.Slavery to the Present (New‘York: ‘Vintage Books,
1985), 153. For an excellent compilation of essays on
various aspects of the Great Migration, please see, Joe
William Trotter, Jr., ed., The Great Migration in Historical
Perspective: New Dimensions of Race, Class, & Gender
(Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press, 1991).

’"The Negro Population of Detroit," ca. 1930, 14-5; John
Dancy, "Negroes in Michigan: A History," 1933, DULP-MHC, Box
74. . '

“Thomas, 27.
’In a survey of just over 700 migrants, the three primary

reason given for migrating were, for "generally better
conditions," "industrial opportunity," and "financial

7

migrants had no clear plan about where to go or what to do.
When they arrived in Detroit they "would just go into the
station and sit down."’° Professional people often had no
other choice but to follow their clientele and community to
the north in order to keep their businesses alive. Historian
Darlene Clark Hine contends that some African American women
may have migrated to escape sexual exploitation by southern
white and black men and to flee domestic violence within their
own families.11

Upon arrival in the north, many African Americans
discovered an "ambiguous kind of Promised Land." For example,
although Ford, Dodge, Chrysler, and the other automobile
plants in Detroit created vast job opportunities, thousands of
southern migrants were left unemployed. Many of the
agriculturally grounded migrants lacked the basic skills
essential for urban industrial work. Additionally, African
Americans were often the "first fired" when the waves of
economic depression hit urban industry. The influx of blacks
also exacerbated the north's defacto racial segregation, which
restricted employment opportunities for even the skilled

worker. A severe shortage of housing combined with the racism

 

improvement." "The Negro Population of Detroit," 18.

10John Dancy, Sands Against the Wind: The Memoirs of John
C. Dancy (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1966), 55-
56.

uDarlene Clark Hine, "Black Migration to the Urban
Midwest: The Gender Dimension, 1915-1945," in Trotter, ed,
130-140.

8

of white real estate agents and bankers and operated to
segregate African Americans into urban ghettoes "where white
landlords were as eager to charge exorbitant rents as they
were unwilling to maintain or improve existing dwellings.""
In 1919, northern cities like Chicago and Pittsburgh reported
the crowding of black migrants "into basements, shanties, fire
bunks and other types of houses unfit for human
habitation."13 In Detroit, where the continuous stream of
new arrivals diminished job opportunities and intensified
problems of crime, violence, sanitation, and housing,
insufficient sanitation and meager diet, made tuberculosis
"almost common place" amongst African Americans.“

Most of the people*who:migrated.to Detroit located in the
city’s increasingly congested east side St. Antoine
District:“ As the black population grew, the boundaries of
what became know as the "East side colored district" also
expanded.‘16 Additionally, African Americans began to settle
in other neighborhoods such as the Eight Mile Road district.

Even before the wave of black migration, European

immigration and general urbanization trends had increased the

 

12Jones , 183 .

13George Edmund Haynes, "Negroes Move North. II. Their
Arrival in the North," The Survey (January 4, 1919): 459.

“Thomas , 103 .

“Community Fund News No. 69 (August, 1928) , DULP-MHC, Box
20, File 20.

1“"The Negro Population of Detroit," 10.

9
need for social services traditionally provided by reformers
and charity workers. As scientific knowledge and standardized
methods had provided legitimacy to many professions and
disciplines in the nineteenth century, volunteer workers
contemplated the idea of "scientific charity" with the
underlying belief that poverty could be eradicated."

As an outgrowth of organized charity and the social
reform and settlement movements of the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, social work emerged as a largely female
profession. After 1900, social work increasingly attracted
middle and upper-middle class educated women. These women
looked for an outlet for their academic training and social
skills. Social work, like teaching and nursing, provided an
acceptable "feminine" occupation where paid work appeared to
be an extension of sanctioned domestic roles.“

As a field comprised increasingly of women workers, with
services directed almost entirely towards the poor,
professional-ization proved a difficult process. The
objectivity associated with the professional world created
conflicts for women. Many struggled to reconcile expectations
of femininity with the identity associated with male
professional culture. Additionally, the poor and working

class backgrounds of the profession's clientele lowered the

 

1"Linda Gordon, Heros of Their Own Lives: The Politics
and History of Family Violence, Boston 1880-1960 (New York:
Penguin Books, 1988), 62.

“Wenocur and Reisch, 26-7.

10
prestige and status of social work as compared to that of
other established professions.”

Professionalization may not have been a conscious goal
for some early social workers, but many did have interest in
upgrading their social status. Daniel Walkowitz argues that
the challenge for social workers to forge a professional
identity was largely influenced by the belief that
professional work in the 1920's meant admission into the
developing consumer economy and growing middle class;20

Clearly, however, many of the field's early leaders were
directly concerned about professional recognition. They
looked to medicine and law as models in the quest for
legitimization. Advanced training, specialized education,
autonomy, service orientation, and social prestige
characterized each of these professions.21 Social work's
pioneering women, Jane Addams (Hull House), Sophonisba

Brekinridge and Edith Abbott (the Chicago School), and

 

1"Daniel Walkowitz, "The Making of a Feminine Professional
Identity: Social Workers in the 1920’s," American Historical
Review 95(October 1990): 1058.

20The second major point Walkowitz makes in his essay,
however, is that few white women (of those entirely dependent
on their own social work earnings) were able to overcome the
low'pay and low status of the profession and truly participate
as middle class consumers. Walkowitz, 1060-62.

“Leighninger, 19: Wenocur and Reisch, 21-9: and Cecile
M. Whalen, Tenure, Training, and Compensation of Detroit
Social Workers (Detroit: Detroit Bureau of Governmental
Research, Inc. , 1938), 12. For a detailed explanation of the
professionalization project see, Magali Sarfatti Larson, The
Rise of Professionalism: A Sociological Analysis (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1977).

11

clinical social worker Bertha Reynolds, envisioned the
profession as a source of career opportunities for college
educated women, and thus encouraged the replacement of upper
class charity workers with a fresh group of middle-class
"experts.”2 Over time, specialized case work methods,
record keeping, and psychiatric techniques came to represent
the "scientific" base for social work.”

Struggling for professional recognition, the field’s
leaders drove to establish professional associations to
determine and monitor developing standards. Undergraduate and
graduate programs sprung up at numerous colleges and
universities to provide professional training.“ After 1921,
the American Association of Social Workers (AASW), with its
tight admission standards and professional journal, became at
once the voice and gatekeeper of the nascent profession.
Concern over standards had earlier prompted the establishment
of the American Association of Schools of Social Work (AASSW) ,

in 1919, to monitor the accreditation of social work programs

 

‘nLeighninger, 10-11; Walkowitz, 1057.

inThe 1917 publication of Social Diagnosis by Mary
Richmond, one of the emerging profession's most significant
theoreticians, helped to establish the "scientific" foundation
for social casework. Additionally, recodifying case work
activities from "investigation" to "diagnosis" strengthened
the perception of social work as a profession. Wenocur and
Reisch, 94-5: and Leighninger, 9.

"David M. Austin, A History of Social Work Education
(Austin, TX: The University of Texas at Austin, 1986), 1-9.

12
housed in American colleges and universities.”’0bsessed with
professional recognition and the status associated with it,
the field's leaders on the local and national level
continually asked how they could tighten standards and sharpen
the exclusive role of social work." For the first time in
1930, the United States Census officially listed social work
as a "profession." In spite of these measures, the struggle

for professional recognition had actually just begun.”

 

‘”Leighninger, 15.

26For example, the 1928 Milford Report (published under
the auspices of the AASW) recommended.that a Masters of Social
Work (M.S.W.) should become the entry-level credential for
AASW membership. Walkowitz, 1054.

2"Although the AASW continuously recommended tighter and
more exclusive professional standards, many working in the
profession failed to meet the established credentials. For
example, of the new members admitted into the AASW between
1930-2, only nine percent actually held graduate degrees. In
fact, only a little over half even held a baccalaureate
degree. Additionally, most people outside of the profession
still believed social work to be little more than charity
giving. Leighninger, l3.

CHAPTER 2

SOCIAL SERVICES AMONGST AFRICAN AMERICANS IN DETROIT

With the exception of small Catholic and Jewish service
agencies, white middle class Protestant women performed social
work in the 1920's. The vast majority of men working in the
agencies served as executives, with few women attaining such
administrative posts." These new social workers tended to
blame the urban poor for their alleged ”lack of initiative, on
the one hand, and the lack of know-how and organizational
skills on the other."” Even workers with good intentions
frequently assumed their clients possessed a "subnormal
intelligence." Although the standardized "scientific"
approach intended to replace informal judgements, it often
served merely to legitimize the undercurrent of prejudice.30

African Americans seeking social services faced
widespread discrimination. Ill-equipped to handle the influx

of black migrants in the first place, many agencies denied

 

"Ibid, 10-11: Gordon, 66: and Walkowitz, 1050.

”Edyth L. Ross, Black Heritage in Social Welfare: 1860-
1930 (Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1978), 286.

”Gordon , 14-5 .

l3

14
people of color service altogether.31 It would be inaccurate
to conclude, however, that no social services existed within
Detroit’s expanding black communities. Actually, during the
first quarter of the twentieth century, African American
churches extended a variety of social welfare services.’2
The larger denominations established their own agencies to
address problems of race relations and social welfare.” For
example, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Detroit
Iestablished a social service department in 1911 to provide
food, clothing, and relief to the increasing stream tof
migrants." Likewise, Detroit’s Second Baptist Church sent
out representatives to meet each train that arrived from the

south. The historian Richard Thomas points out that between

 

31Washington, 313-314: George Edmund Haynes, "Negroes,"
The Social Work Year Book: A Description of Organized
Activities in Social WOrk and Related Fields, 1935 (New York:
Russel Sage Foundation): 290-1.

32Not all African Americans in the established northern
black communities held out open arms to welcome the influx of
southern migrants. As historian Richard Thomas points out, as
early as the 1870's, many African American elites "looked down
their noses" at the growing black masses, feeling that the
presence of these less "socialized" or cultured blacks
threatened their social position, vis a vis the white
community. Thomas, 10-11: and "The Negro Population of
Detroit, 20.

”George E. Haynes, "The Church and the Negro Spirit,"
Survey-Graphic (1925), reprinted in Ross, 406-10: "History of
the Negro Church in Michigan," ca. 1926, 8, DULP-MHC, Box 74:
The Mayor's Inter-racial Committee, "Religion," The Negro in
Detroit (Detroit Bureau of Government Research, 1926), 10-11.

3‘David Katzman, Before the Ghetto: Black Detroit in the
Nineteenth Century (Urbana: University of Illinois Press,
1973), 139.

15
1917 and 1918, Second Baptist.proved the most important social
service center for African Americans in Detroit.”’ In 1925,
prominent black social work leader George E. Haynes praised
the efforts of Second Baptist, designating it one of the
"outstanding examples of a broad and vigorous institutional
service."“

Likewise, throughout the nineteenth and into the
twentieth century, African American women’s clubs organized on
the local and national levels to attend to the social welfare
and reform needs of their communities.” For example, the
Christian Industrial Clubtorganized in 1904 to lend support to
defenseless young female migrants arriving in Detroit.

Likewise, the Women's City Council, an elite African American

 

”Thomas, 176.
36Haynes, 407.

”In recent years a vast literature on African American
women's clubs has developed. Please see, for example, Paula
Giddings, When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black WOmen
on Race and Sex in America (New York: Bantam Books, 1984);
Linda Gordon, "Black and White Visions of Welfare: Women’s
Welfare Activism, 1890-1945," The Journal of American History
(September 1991); Darlene Clark Hine, Black Women in the
Middle west: The Michigan Experience (Historical Society of
Michigan, 1990); Hine, When the Truth is Told: A History of
Black Women’s Culture and Community in Indiana, 1875-1950
(Indianapolis, IN: The National Council of Negro Women,
1981): Gerda Lerner, "Community Work of Black Women,"
reprinted in The Majority Finds Its Past: Placing WOmen in
History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979): Dorothy
Salem, To Better Our World: Black Women in Organized Reform,
1890-1920, Volume 14 in Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Black WOmen
in united States History (Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing
Inc., 1990): and Anne Firor Scott, "Most Invisible of All:
Black Women’s Voluntary Associations," The Journal of Southern
History LVI (February 1990).

16

women's club established in Detroit in 1921, took part in the
full range of uplift and social reform work. They visited
schools, provided suitable clothing for poor youngsters, and
even sponsored summer camps for needy children and mothers.”
Noting the work of Detroit's Progressive Women's Civic
Association, formed in 1925, one writer maintained that "These
ladies are always on the alert to any problems pertaining to
our race, and they aid in remedying them if possible.””

Notions of "scientific charity" and more
"professionalized" social services entered into the social
work of Detroit's churches and club women. The 1920 report,
The Negro in Detroit, recommended that churches either employ
trained social workers or get rid of social services
altogether as "these one half trained social workers [were]
duplicating each others efforts, interfering with the work of
established agencies and in general cluttering up the welfare
work in the city." The report insisted that church leaders
institute and maintain uniform standards of work.‘0 On the
contrary, the 1926 Negro .in .Detroit report praised. the
increasingly "scientific character" of the social services
provided by club women, adding that like the trained social

worker the club woman responded “to the necessities of the

 

”Hine, When Truth is Told, 15.
”Quoted in Thomas, 222.

‘mForrester B. Washington, The Negro in Detroit (Research
Bureau, Associated Charities of Detroit, 1920).

17
general community.“1

Indeed, the increasingly "scientific" character of social
service work within Detroit’s black communities was influenced
by the larger professional transition from charity giving to
case work. More important to this shift, however, was the
establishment of the Detroit Urban League (DUL) in 1916.
Without question, the League played the most significant role
in establishing a sound employment base for African American
social workers in the city. Additionally, the League insisted
that social work amongst blacks be transformed from charity
giving to professional case work.

Under the direction of Forrester B. Washington, a social
worker trained at Harvard and Columbia, the DUL followed the
lead of the National Urban League (NUL) by making the training
and placement of African American social workers a key task.
The NUL was established in 1911 under the leadership of George
E. Haynes and Eugene Kinckle Jones, to address the issues of
housing, employment, health, and discrimination that
contributed to the eroding social and economic circumstances

of African Americans in urban areas.‘2 The League's leaders

 

“The Mayor's Inter-racial Committee, 14.

“Bulletin of National League on urban Conditions Among
Negroes, Report 1912-1913, Announcement 1913-1914, "Foreword,"
Vol. III, 2 (November, 1913): 5-8, reprinted in Ross, 240-42:
For a complete history of the National Urban League please
see, Nancy Weiss, The National Urban League (New York: Oxford
University Press, 1974): and, Jesse Thomas Moore, A Search for
Eguality: the National Urban League, 1910-1961 (University
Park, PN: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1981).

18
believed that urban conditions made it essential to prepare
young and motivated African Americans for professional social
service work.”

When John Dancy, a man trained in social work at the
University of Pennsylvania, took over the Detroit League in
1918, he expanded the black social work network already
developing within the city and nation.“ He made connections
with the traditionally white public and private social
agencies, maintained active communication with League branches
throughout the country, became involved with the Detroit
branch of the AASW and Federation of Settlements, and
established contacts with sociology programs (some of which
later organized separate departments of social work) at local
colleges and universities.

Dancy's efforts clearly fell in line with League
directives in the early 1920' s. The NUL continuously sounded
the need not only to train African American social workers,
but also to provide opportunities for employment. According
to Eugene Kinckle Jones, this meant inducing white agencies
"to add Negro social workers to their personnel [so] that
Negroes may have a share in performing their duties which

bring them to better social conditions."“

 

“Weiss, 73.

“For more information on Dancy, please see his memoirs,
Sands Against the Wind.

“Eugene Kinckle Jones, "Building a Larger Life,"
Opportunity vol. I (March 1923): 19-21.

19

Although early placements may have been few, by 1920 the
Detroit League placed several women and a few men in social
work positions within the city’ s expanding black welfare
agencies and in white companies and service organizations. In
1919, for example, the League placed a black social worker in
the American Car and Foundry Company at a salary of $1,800 per
year. Dancy took particular interest in placing black social
workers in the auto factories, and with the city's other major
employers, as these placements provided professional
opportunities for black social workers, and created a means by
which to help black employees and their white employers
constructively settle grievances.“s Additionally, in 1920,
the DUL's placement of three female social workers at the
Detroit Recreation Commission, the Girl's Protective League,
and the Public Welfare Commission, made news in the National
Urban League News Letter." By 1926 the Detroit League
boasted the existence of eighteen professional black social
workers in the city, fourteen of which were women.“

Engaging in professional social work may well have held

different meaning to African Americans and to whites. African

 

“Form letter from Dancy to a number of Detroit’s major
employers, October 26, 1918, DULP-MHC, Box 1: Letter to John
Dancy from Ed Doane, Nov. 22, 1918, DULP-MHC, Box 1.

"Letter to Eugene Kinckle Jones, From John Dancy, Sept.
18, 1919, DULP-MHC, Box 1: "National Urban League News Letter"
June 3, 1920, DULP-MHC, Box 1, File 10.

“There are numerous reports which make reference to the
number of black social workers employed in Detroit at any one
time. Unfortunately, names rarely accompany the lists.

20

American women took interest in both helping the less
fortunate, and in<entering the consumer economy of the 1920's.
However, for many blacks, professional social work included
participation in the "uplift" of the entire African American
race. In 1928, Eugene Kinckle Jones insisted that in addition
to the duties regularly associated with social work, "The
Negro social worker . . . has an added responsibility in the
task of bringing the whole Negro group as a separate social
entity up to a higher level of social status." He added that
"the most important force at work in.the interest of the Negro
today from the point of view of the social worker is the
movement which is active in making communities feel that the
Negro is part and parcel of society as a whole."”

Unlike the white worker, whose reality and home was often
far removed from that of the client, the African American
worker (who may or may not have been differentiated from their
clients by class) often lived and interacted within the very
community he or she worked. Racial discrimination
significantly limited the places where all blacks could live
and work. For example, because Beulah Whitby, a social worker
employed.by the YWCA in the mid-1920's, lived next door to the
YWCA/Urban League building servicing Detroit’ 8 black

community, she understood the plight of her clients, and in

 

‘”Eugene Kinckle Jones, "Social Work Among Negroes," The
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
vol. CXL (November, 1928): 287-293.

21

many ways shared their experiences of life in an urban
ghetto.“o

African American social workers, in spite of their
proximity and interconnection with their clients, at times
held many of the same patronizing attitudes as did the white
worker. In fact, the black social welfare leadership was
often charged with engaging in a "middle class movement" which
adhered to white classist values and endeavored to uplift the
black community so that it would not drag down middle and‘
upper middle class African Americans. Part of the middle-
class mission was to transform "crude" southern black folk
into proper citizens, in an effort to make them "a credit to
the race." Black social workers, along with church workers
and club women, instructed migrants on proper dress and
behavior, in and outside of their homes. Men and women like
Forrester Washington were particularly bothered by "displays
of southern folkways" believing that such expressions hindered
the League’s efforts to overcome negative perceptions of
African Americans in general.m

Many of the women who entered the profession came
directly out of the expanding black middle class. Scholars of
black women in social reform agree that the African American

women who obtained higher education felt a "special

 

”Whitby, Beulah, interview by Jim Keeney and Roberta
McBride, 16 September 1969, Detroit, transcript, 2, ALHUA-WSU.

”Thomas, 55-7: and "The Negro Population of Detroit,” 16.

22

responsibility to assist in the ' uplifting of the race. '"
Social work, along with club work and the other service
oriented "female" occupations such as education and nursing,
provided the perfect opportunity to engage in both welfare and
reform activities.“2 For example, Willie Belle Harper,
educated.at.Howard.University, stated in her resume that "I am
especially interested in doing something for the social and
general welfare of my group, and.I am positive that a position
as a social worker will grant that opportunity.”3

Even more varied than the meaning of social work for
blacks and.whites, was their access to the profession itself.
Although African Americans totaled only seven to eight percent
of Detroit's population throughout the twenties and thirties,
they comprised thirty percent of those on public relief. It
seems logical, considering the vast need for welfare services
in the black communities, that opportunities would be extended
to African Americans interested in social service careers.
Not so. Aspiring black social workers (almost ninety percent
of which were women) confronted numerous obstacles.

The exclusion created by the ”professionalization" of the

field presented the most obvious obstacle for African

 

”Cynthia Neverdon-Morton, Afro-American Women of the
South and the Advancement of the Race, 1895-1925 (Knoxville,
TN: ‘University of Tennessee Press, 1989), 8, 66-7; Salem, 52-
3, 66-7: Darlene Clark Hine, Black WOmen in White: Racial
Conflict and'Cooperation in the NUrsing.Profession, 1890-1950
(Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1989), 11-16, 62.

”Willie Belle Harper's Application for Social Work
employment in Detroit 61923-24, DULP-MHC, Box 21, File 1.

23

Americans. Even omitting the issue of racism, social workers
faced a difficult challenge in obtaining the professional
stamp. The AASW continuously tightened its organizational
credentials by increasing the amount of education and training
required for entry into the association. The primary barriers
for African Americans centered on deficient funds for
education, limited access into colleges and universities, and
the reluctance of agencies to employ black workers or accept
them for training. Agencies used membership in the AASW as a
requisite for employment, and the AASW used education and
field experience as requirements for membership in their
organization. Although the AASW did not have blatantly racist
membership qualifications (except in a few southern states),
the association's membership requirements often resulted in
exclusion for African Americans.“

Upon obtaining social work positions, African American
workers still confronted the challenge of gaining the
confidence of the black community. The Negro in Detroit
reported in 1926 that "it was generally conceded that Negroes
recently arrived from the South have been inclined to seek a
white worker rather than a colored because they are not
accustomed to members of their own race in professional

capacities . "’5

 

"Washington, "Negroes," 313-15.

”The Mayor' s Inter-racial Committee, 43; Report, Aug. 3,
1926, DULP-MHC, Box 1, File, 18.

24

African American women were additionally burdened by the
pervasive negative myths about black womanhood. In 1922,
Dancy lamented the difficulty of finding employment for
African American women in areas other than domestic work. It
proved particularly difficult, he stated, for those women with
specialized training, high school certificates, or colleges
degrees.“ In a 1925 article in Survey, the professional
social work journal, Elise Johnson McDougald argued that this
trend was related to the fact that black women were "singled
out and advertised as having lower sex standards. "’7 In
order to discern why African American women in Detroit faced
particular difficulty in securing employment, the Michigan
Division of Negro Welfare and Statistics proposed a research
project in 1926 to determine whether there existed "a moral
laxity among colored women . . . contributing to the
conditions."” In a profession such as social work, laden
with moral overtones, negative myths and images about women's

sexual ity proved particularly problematic . 5’ Dancy

 

“Thomas , 65 .

”Elise Johnson McDougald, "The Double Task: The Struggle
of Negro Women for Sex and Race Emancipation," Survey LIII no.
2(March l, 1925) : 718.

”"Comments on the General Survey of the State Undertaken
by the Division of the Negro Welfare and Statistics," 1926,
DULP-MHC, Box 1, File 16.

”This phenomena was not particular to social work.
African American women in other female professions such as
nursing were also especially susceptible to such negative
sfireotyping. Please see, Darlene Clark Hine, Black Women in
W te.

25

repeatedly stressed the good reputations and strong family
backgrounds of the African American women he recommended to
both black and white agencies. For example, when writing a
reference letter for Virginia Mae Houston, a woman educated at
the City College of Detroit, Dancy stated, "Besides coming
from one of Detroit's best known families, this young woman
can stand on her own feet," and stressed that "she bares an
exemplary reputation."“’

The under utilization of the housing facilities in the
segregated Lucy Thurman Branch of the YWCA illustrates the
grim state of job opportunities for African American women in
Detroit in the 1920's and 30's. While the branch's housing
facilities were available to 376 employed black women and
girls per night in 1934, the average occupancy totaled only
forty-two percent. The Y's administrators viewed the
occupancy rate as an "improvement" on the part of the "Negro
girls," and stated that "because opportunities for employment
amon[g] the Negroes are so limited ’except. in. domestic
service' it has not been possible to have a waiting list for
these rooms.”1

Notwithstanding, some resourceful and fortunate African

American women did secure social work positions throughout the

 

‘wLetter to William Conners, Cleveland Urban.League, from
John Dancy, Jan. 7, 1928, DULP-MHC, Box 1, File 22.

‘”Memo on YWCA. Residences for’ Women's Mobilization,
February 1935, United Community Services Central File, ALHUA-
WSU, Box 69, File 11.

26

twenties and thirties. Many continued to look for employment
within black organizations like the Urban League, YWCA Lucy
Thurman Branch, and Phyllis Wheatley Settlement Home. For
example, in 1919 the'Urban.League hired Miss Elizabeth.Gulley,
a graduate of Dennison University, to visit the homes of
”every colored new-comer" in the city. During each visit she
encouraged vaccination against smallpox, and gave careful
instructions regarding proper clothing and diet.62

A few women, such as Madeline Fowler and Beulah Whitby,
obtained positions with the YWCA Lucy Thurman Branch. Whitby,
a sociology graduate from Oberlin College, came to Detroit in
1924 to work for the YWCA. She linked her desire for a career
in social work to her father. Educated at Yale Divinity
School, her father had established an Institutional Church in
Virginia. The church focused on a ”program of work with
deprived people on a day by day basis" rather than simply
emphasizing Sunday worship. While growing up, Whitby went on
home visits with her father and had the opportunity to
contemplate and discuss the problems faced by African
Americans. At the YWCA, Whitby worked as part of a program
coordinated by the Travellers Aid Society. Participating
relief agencies sent out support teams to meet all trains
incoming from the south. Whitby greeted newcomers at the

Michigan Central Rail Road. She helped new migrants orient

 

“"Board of Health and Urban League Co-operate to Improve
Heath Conditions," @1919, DULP-MHC, Box 1, File 10.

27
themselves, often directing them to the Y where they obtained
short-term housing on the gymnasium floors.63

According to Whitby, the segregated Lucy Thurman Branch
of the YWCA.was "a.very active organization" in the 1920's and
30’s. In 1934 alone, it provided services to over 134,000
people. The branch proudly stated that it was the only
African American YWCA in the state with a suitable building
and equipment, and more importantly, added, "Ours is the only
one that has a Colored staff." This suggests that even
segregated services did not guarantee professional
opportunities for African American social workers.“

The YWCA did promote professional standards amongst
African American women employed as social workers. Madeline
Fowler, director of the segregated Lucy Thurman Branch, was
anxious to increase her "scientific" knowledge. In 1930 she
attended a summer school college camp held by the YWCA in
Wisconsin. She found courses in group psychology and in the
application of "modern methods" particularly useful. In an
enthusiastic letter to Dancy, Fowler asserted that if he
noticed any change in her social service work, it was due to

her experience at the camp.“

 

‘”Whitby, 1-3.

‘“Ibid, 1; "Case Work, Protective Service:" and Report on
YWCA Lucy Thurman Branch, July 25, 1935, United Community
Services Central File, ALHUA-WSU, Box 122, File 18.

‘“Letter to Dancy, from Madeline Fowler (YWCA), undated
@1930, DULP-MHC, Box 1, File 30.

28

Numerous African American women seeking social work
positions in the 1920’s and 30’s looked to public institutions
such as the Women's Division of the Detroit Police Department,
the Department of Health, and the Juvenile Court to obtain
employment previously reserved for whites.“‘ Especially
after the onset of the Great Depression, Dancy expended
considerable energy making connections with government
offices. He knew that the public agencies, like the Welfare
Department, had a considerably larger budget than the city's
smaller private agencies and, therefore, maintained sizable
staff, and offered greater employment opportunities to African
Americans.

The League quickly discovered that the placement of one
African American worker in a traditionally white public or
private agency led to additional positions within the same
organization. A survey sent to several (white) agencies in
1926 confirmed 'that agencies 'with at least one .African
American in their employ found considerable benefits in having
black workers handle black case loads, and expressed interest
in hiring additional workers. The Visiting Housekeepers
Association commented that the African Americans on their

staff handled all of their black cases because of the "better

 

“Letter to John Dancy, from Miss Florence G. Anderson,
Secretary, Women's Division Detroit Police Dept, Dec. 10,
1923, DULP-MHC, Box 1, File 13: "Social Work," March 11, 1930,
DULP-MHC, Box 2, File 1.

29
response given to the Negro worker."“’ By 1927, the Detroit
League listed forty-six African Americans with "jobs worth
commenting about" in white organizations, all of which were
social work related positions.“

The philosophy that African American workers were somehow
better equipped to address the needs of black clients even
helped open supervisory positions to a number of black women.

In the mid-1920's, for example, Sophia Cole advanced to a
supervisory position with the Department of Public Welfare.
Bernice Jones accomplished the same feat at the private
Children's Aid Society in'thetmid-thirtiesa In a 1935 Compass
Needle article reporting Jone's promotion, Dora Morton, a
fellow Children's Aid Society caseworker, explained that
"Executives who employ Colored workers find that in most
instances the Negro deals very satisfactorily with his own
people. His racial intuition gives him a sympathetic insight
into the problems of his own kinda The colored.worker is able
to understand the ecstacies and enthusiasms underlying Negro
life."" It is ironic that racism, or at least racialist
thinking, played a part in creating opportunities for black

workers.

 

”The Mayor's Inter-racial Committee, 33-43.

‘“Letter to Arnold T. Hill (NUL), from John Dancy, Sept.
13, 1927, DULP-MHC, Box 1, File 21.

“Letter to Forrester B. Washington, Atlanta School of
Social Work, from John Dancy, May 19, 1927, Box 1, File 20:
Dora Morton, "The First Negro Supervisor in Michigan," The
Compass Needle vol. 2(October, 1935): 21.

30

Many African American social work leaders also followed
this type of racialist thinking, but for different reasons.
For example, in 1920 Dancy stated that "The Colored worker
knows and understands the psychology of the migrant" and
insisted that black workers have "a warm sympathy that cannot
and does not carry with one of another race.""° Although
many white social workers claimed to be free of racial
prejudice, they often carried with them underlying assumptions
that African Americans were "non-moral" or "unimprovable" as
human beings."1 The racial uplift or self-help theory that
guided much of the African American social services work in
this time period was based on the opposite premise. In order
for black self-help or racial uplift to be effective, then,
African Americans (presumably middle-class and educated)
needed to work with (or assist) other African Americans to
redirect the path of the black community.

Not until well into the 1940'S‘would.a significant.number
of African. Americans begin to carry' mixed caseloads in
Detroit."2 Even after the onset of the Great Depression,

when large numbers of people found themselves in need of

 

'"DULP-MHC, Box 11 and quoted in Weiss, 74.

71Robert C. Dexter, "The Negro in Social Work," Survey,
Vol. XLVI (June 25, 1921): 439-40; Haynes, ”Negroes," 289.

72Tessica Kimball "The Problem of Negroes Carrying Mixed
Caseloads in the Metropolitan Area of Detroit," Term Paper
Written for Social Work Course at Wayne State University,
November 29, 1944. United Community Services Central File,
ALHUA-WSU, Part II (unprocessed).

31

relief services, the Detroit Department of Public Welfare
continued to handle all case work on a segregated basis. In
1931 Beulah Whitby obtained employment at the Welfare
Department as a social caseworker for the predominately black
Alfred District of Detroit. She recalled that "If a white
family lived on a street, then I couldn’t visit that family.
There would.be two‘workers on the same district which was very
wasteful-~administratively expensive."”

Whitby believed that the events which led to her
promotion to administrative supervisor of the Alfred District
in 1941, helped chip away at the established pattern of
segregated social work in the city. In the late 1930's,
Whitby supervised the field work of students from the
University of Michigan's School of Social Work, then located
in the city of Detroit. As a result of the Great Depression,
there was a desperate need for trained social workers, and,
therefore, a significant demand for field work supervisors.
Eleanor Cranefield, a University of Michigan social work
instructor, "deliberately" broke the pattern of segregation by

sending white students to Whitby." Whitby held that her

 

”Whitby, 6 , 11-12.

"By 1938, Whitby had earned her M.S.W. from the
University of Michigan. Interestingly, Eleanor Cranefield,
who served as Whitby’s master's advisor, asked.Dancy to sit on
Whitby's thesis committee. Whitby wrote her master's thesis
on the "Hospital Facilities Available to Negroes." Letter to
Dancy, from Eleanor Cranefield, Assistant Professor of Case
Wgrk, University of Michigan, June 2, 1938, DULP-MHC, Box 4,
F le 18.

32

success in supervising white students demonstrated to the
(white) Department of Welfare administrative staff that
African Americans possessed the skills required to oversee
black and white social workers. Many "liberal people" in the
social work structure "fell unconsciously into the pattern of
segregation because it was what. was done." After the
Department of Welfare observed Whitby’s interaction with the
U of M students, she, along with Mrs. Snow F. Grisby, a women
educated at Fisk and Case Western IReserve, advanced to
administrative supervisory posts. Whitby and Grisby became
the highest ranking African American women in city's white
social work structure.”

Like Whitby, Dancy and the Detroit Urban League Staff
supervised the training experience of at least a few
University of Michigan social work students. Mildred
Valentine, Field Work Supervisor of the U of M78 Sociology
Department, brought a number of students to the League in 1931
for a day of field work experience.76 Impressed by what she
saw, Carrol Rumsey, an African American social work student,
requested to do her training internship at the League in the

fall of 1931.”’ In a January 1932 letter assessing Rumsey's

 

"’Ibid, 12-13; "Negro Instructors at Wayne," Michigan
Chronicle» 27 February 1954: and "Graduates in Detroit"
[1933], DULP-MHC, Box 2, File 24.

"Letter to Dancy from Mildred A. Valentine (U of M),
April 8, 1931, DULP-MHC, Box 2, File 11.

”Letter to Dancy, from Mildred Valentine, October 8,
1931, DULP-MHC, Box 2, File 15.

33
internship experience, Valentine wrote to Dancy and stated
that, "Miss Rumsey has grown immensely as a result of the
broader contacts which she has had during the semester . . .
She wishes to continue with you next semester if that is
satisfactory with you." Valentine went on to stress, "I want
you to know that Miss Rumsey's placement with you was one of
the most successful placements that we have made.""' In
1936, another African American University of Michigan student,
Mrs. Elizabeth M. Cooper, carried out similar field work with
the Leaguei" Both the League's and Whitby’s experience as
field work supervisors suggests that the U of M was interested
in establishing better race relations in social work. In
fact, in 1936, Robert Kelso, Director of the Institute of
Health and Social Sciences at the U of M (the formal name of
the newly accredited social work program) directly stated that
he wanted to establish a "closer friendly understanding

between the new institute" and the Detroit Urban League.‘0

 

"Letter to Dancy, from Valentine, January 23, 1932 and
Letter to Valentine, from Dancy, January 30, 1932, DULP-MHC,
Box 2, File 17.

”Letter to Dancy, from Robert W. Kelso (U of M), March
5, 1936, DULP-MHC, Box 3, File 23.

I'°Ibid .

CHAPTER 3
ALTERNATIVE ROADS OF PROFESSIONALIZATION

EDUCATION AND ASSOCIATIONS ON THE LOCAL AND NATIONAL LEVEL

The emerging black social service leadership continuously
worked on the local and national level to overcome the
professional and racial barriers of the field. These men and
women knew that African Americans needed access to education,
training, and organizational support. In the mid-1920's,
Dancy worked with a number of black social workers, including
Whitby, Grisby, and Fowler, to establish the Detroit Council
of Social Workers."1 The organization endeavored to foster
interracial cooperation among social workers and served as
both a community service organization and an alternative
professional associationtfor African Americans. Membership
was open to "anyone engaged or interested in social work."“
The Council’s official task was to act as a "clearing-house on
subjects of general and special social work" and to promote

"good-fellowship and the encouragement of worthy efforts and

 

””Constitution and By-Laws of the Detroit Council of
Social Workers" [1926?], DULP-MHC, Box 1, File 16.

”Letter to DCSW Members, September 23, 1938, DULP-MHC,
Box 8.

34

35

enterprises."” Each year the Council invited local and
national figures to speak "before an interracial group" on a
range of social work related topics. For example, National
Urban League President, Eugene Kinckle Jones: local social
service leader, Fred Butzel; Opportunity editor, Elmer Carter:
and Dr. W .G. Bergman of the Department of Education, were
amongst the distinguished individuals who spoke before the
organization.“ Additionally, the association held monthly
meetings to discuss relevant issues. On one occasion in 1934,
members contemplated the question "Does D-E-S-E-G-R-E-G-A-T-I-
O-N Spell Opportunity for the Negro in Social Work
Organizations?”

The work of the Council benefitted many throughout
Detroit's African American communities. It provided African
Americans employed at agencies ranging from the YWCA to the
Probation Division of the Recorder's Court with a forum for
support and discussion that many were excluded from in the
AASW. Additionally, Council workers volunteered their time

and energy to support Green Acres, a summer camp for the

 

”"Constitution and By-laws of the Detroit Council of
Social Work" [1926?], DULP-MHC, Box 1 File 16.

"Letter to Detroit Council of Social Workers, May 11,
1932 DULP-MHC, Box 8; Letter to DCSW, from Dancy, October 21,
1926, DULP-MHC, Box 1 File 18; Letter DCSW, from Dancy,
October 20, 1938, DULP-MHC, Box 1 File 25: Letter to Dr. W.G.
Bergam, from Dancy, March 18, 1931, DULP-MHC, Box 2, File 10:
and Letter to Dancy, from Elmer Carter, May 8, 1931, Box 2,
File 12.

”Letter to Dancy from Mary Raines, March 1934, DULP-MHC,
Box 8 .

36

cities less advantaged black children.“ In 1938, Council
president Whitby, who by then had also become a part-time
faculty member at Wayne University, declared that "several
members of our group and other leaders in the community have
expressed themselves as feeling that this organization is
necessary and that it can play a vital role in our group and
professional life at this time.""

In an effort to secure employment for qualified black
social workers in and outside of the League, Dancy networked
with League executives around the country, exchanging resumes
and recommendation letters.“ By 1930 the DUL listed
seventy-two black social workers employed by the various
public and private agencies in the city (see table 1)."

Dancy was ambivalent. He believed that although this was "not

 

“Minutes of Meeting, September 27, 1928, DULP-MHC, Box
8.

”Beulah Whitby appears to have been Wayne State’s first
black faculty member (based on my own research and that of
Wayne's University archivist), however, I cannot actually
prove this for certain. Whitby served as a part time
instructor for the Social Work department beginning in 1938.
"Negro Instructors at Wayne:" and Letter to Members of the
Detroit Council of Social Workers, from Whitby, January 13,
1938, DULP-MHC, Box 8.

“Letter to Eugene Kinckle Jones, From John Dancy, May 19,
1926: Letter to John Dancy, from Gerald E. Allen, Canton Urban
League, September 17, 1929, DULP-MHC, Box 1: A string of
recommendation letters are sent out, and received by Dancy
dailring the late 20's and into the early 30’s, DULP-MHC, Box 1,
F les 21-8.

"Although it is difficult to determine precisely how many
white social workers were employed in the city in 1930, the
results of a 1936 survey indicate that at least 720 whites
were working as "professional" social workers. Whalen, 2.

37
as representative as it should be, it [was] none the less
encouraging to note the trend of affairs." While the
Depression would alter the city's entire social work
structure, Dancy remained optimistic that within the coming
years a greater number of black workers would find employment
in social work and related fields;”

Dancy contended throughout the twenties and early
thirties that many social service positions remained unfilled
due to the absence of accredited professional education and
training available to aspiring social workers in the Detroit
area. Actually, most black women placed by the League did
have sound educational backgrounds in sociology, psychology,
and education, having obtained their degrees from a wide range
of schools“ Some attended local institutions such.as the City
College of Detroit (later Wayne State University) or the
University of Michigan: many more went to historically black
colleges and universities like Talledega, Fisk, and
Morehouse."1 Increasingly, African Americans earned their
degrees from schools with social work programs or even
specialty schools such as the New York and Atlanta Schools of

Social Work. After 1930, Dancy focused his placement efforts

 

‘”"Social Work in Detroit," March 11, 1930, DULP-MHC, Box
2, File 1.

”Wayne State University's name changed several times
during the first half the of the twentieth century. Over the
years it has been named all of the following: Detroit Junior
College, College of the City of Detroit, Colleges of the City
of Detroit, Wayne University, and Wayne State University.

38
on those with higher education and advised others that "now
days . . . there are so many worthwhile Social Work Schools
that the employer makes use of them rather than to accept the
inexperienced worker."”

For years the emerging black social work leadership
attempted to make social work education accessible to African
Americans interested in social service careers. Most white
institutions of higher learning adhered to the color line and
consequently provided only limited opportunities to African
Americans. Leaders such as Haynes contended that educating
young people at historically black colleges might ”furnish the
key" to solving problems plaguing blacks in urban areas."3
Haynes, the earliest African American to obtain professional
training in research and social work (from Columbia University
and the New York School of Philanthropy), established the
first "worthwhile" social work training program catering to
African Americans. The program Haynes instituted at Fisk
University in Nashville, Tennessee in the early 1920's became
the model for similar programs at other colleges and

universities such as Morehouse, Talledega and Howard{” The

 

‘”Recommendation and Application Files, Box 32; Letter to
Miss Pearl Cowan, From Dancy, Sept. 22, 1931, DULP-MHC, Box
32, File 4.

”George E. Haynes, "Cooperation with Colleges in Securing
and Training Negro Social Workers for Urban Centers,"
Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and
Correction, Boston, 1911, (Fort Wayne, Indiana: Fort Wayne
Printing Co., 1911), 384-387, reprinted in Ross, 236.

”Ross, 423: Weiss, 76-77.

39
National Urban League played an essential role in getting
these programs started by furnishing trained leadership and
financial support.

The Atlanta School of Social Work, organized in
conjunction with the Neighborhood Union and Morehouse College
in 1920, became the most distinguished social work program
located within a black college or university. Some of the
nation's best known African American leaders such as John
Hope, Lugenia Burns Hope, Jesse 0. Thomas, and later, E.
Franklin Frazier and Forrester B. Washington, increased the
program's esteem and reputation. In 1928, long before many
social work programs at prestigious (white) universities were
officially approved, the Atlanta School received AASSW
accreditation. Forrester Washington (former director of the
Detroit Urban League) became the program’s dean in 1927.“
Following the school’s directive, which stressed the
importance of scientific method, training, and research,
Washington strove to graduate students prepared to "handle the
complex problems of social work in Negro Communities."“
Additionally, Washington worked tirelessly to place the
school's graduates in social service positions around the
country. Although the National League asserted in 1927 that

"Already the field of social service among colored people is

 

“Ross, 432-3 and 444-5.

‘“Bulletin,.Atlanta School of Social Work, 1929-30, DULP-
MHC, Box 1.

40

demanding so many trained social workers that we are unable to
meet the demand," in reality, League leaders and program
directors continuously labored to open and maintain networks
for the placement of educated African American social
workers.”

Dancy spoke highly of the Atlanta School program, and in
1928 delivered a series of lectures at the school on "Social
Work Amongst Negroes in Detroit."” The lectures became part
of a course designed to introduce students to case work
methods utilizing ”the actual experiences of social agencies
in certain INegro communities in. different. parts of the
country. " Washington wanted Dancy to address the Atlanta
School students as he believed Detroit to be "one of the most
important industrial centers in the country." Additionally,
by 1928 Detroit had developed one of the largest African
American city populations in the United States.”

Prior to 1929, the Atlanta School had placed no graduates
in Detroitn Washington regularly wrote letters to Dancy in an
effort to "sell" his students.‘°° In a 1929 letter he

pointed out that, unlike most black social workers in Detroit,

 

”New Years Letter to the Detroit Urban League, from the
National Urban League, January 8, 1927, DULP-MHC, Box 1, File
19.

‘”Letter to Dancy, from Washington, November 12, 1928,
DULP-MHC, Box 1, File 25.

‘”Washington quoted in Thomas, 85.

100"Information concerning the Atlanta School of Social
Work,” July, 1928, DULP-MHC, Box 1 File 22.

41
who upon completing their education had a degree but no
practical experience, the Atlanta School graduate had "two
years training in a school of social work, one half of which
has been spent in actual work in the field."101 Although it
is unclear how many Atlanta School graduates secured
employment in Detroit, it appears that at least a few of the
city's workers spent time in the program.102 For example, in
1933 Dancy wrote a letter of recommendation for AASW
membership for Mayme Cole, an Atlanta School graduate employed
at the YWCA.w’ Some time prior to 1934, Robert Johnson,
Vocational Director for the St. Antoine Branch of the YMCA,
attended the Atlanta School as a guest student.‘°‘ Carrol
Rumsey, the social work student who trained at the Detroit
Urban League in 1931, completed her graduate work at the
Atlanta School in 1938. Rumsey wanted to return to Detroit in

order to pursue a career "in either case work or group

 

101Letter to Dancy from Washington, August 9. 1929: DULP’
MHC, BOX 1 File 28.

102I have records which list numerous African American’s
in Detroit as A.B.s from "Atlanta." I cannot be sure whether
this refers to Atlanta University or the Atlanta School of
Social Work. Later the two programs merged, however, in the
late twenties and early thirties, they were separate
institutions.

10’Letter to Mable Ussell, From Dancy. May 22. 1933.
DULP-MHC, Box 32, File 2.

1°‘"Prospective Applicants for Work on Federal C.W.A.
Project Number 292," January 11, 1934, DULP-MHC, Box 3, File
1.

42

work."1°” Undoubtedly, the absence of more Atlanta School
graduates in Detroit reflects the preference Dancy gave to
social workers already located in the city, especially after
the onset of the Depression. When employment opportunities
diminished, even for social workers, Dancy protected local
African Americans.”s

To assist young African Americans aspiring to social
service careers, the National Urban League annually granted
competitive scholarships to provide material aid and tuition
waver for social work education.” The Urban League Fellows
attended one of a number of designated schools such as the New
York School of Philanthropy, Fisk University, and the Atlanta
School of Social Work. Upon completing their education and
training, the League required all Fellows to engage in at
least one year of applied social work. Many of those within
the League’s top leadership, including Forrester B.
Washington, were past Fellows.” Although women comprised

almost ninety percent of African American social workers, the

 

”Letter to Dancy, from Carrol Rumsy, May 14, 1938, DULP-
MHC, Box 4, File 16.

10“A June 11, 1931 letter to Miss A.H. Williams of
Atlanta, Georgia, from John Dancy, is but one example of a
string of rejection letters in which Dancy made it clear that
preference would be given to local blacks for any existing
social work positions open to African Americans, DULP-MHC, Box
32.

‘°"The National Urban League began granting these
scholarships in 1912.

10'Weiss , 77-9 .

43
National Urban League usually awarded more than half of the
fellowships to men.“‘ This should not come as a surprise.
Just as in white agencies, men obtained most of the high
ranking administrative posts in organizations like the Urban
League. Notwithstanding, Dancy did recommend.numerous female
social workers for fellowship consideration.“° In 1935,
four Detroit area social workers made application for the
grants.111 In a biographical sketch accompanying the
fellowship application, Helen Wright, a University of Michigan
graduate, expressed the pressures placed upon African American
social work students attending white institutions. She wrote
"I was first a Negro, then Helen Wright. Whatever I did or
failed to do, it reflected upon.my group, hence it has kept.me
consciously putting my best foot forward."“2 Arnold Hill,
of the National Urban League, expressed interest in Wright and
at least two other Detroit applicants. However, it does not

appear any of them were awarded the fellowship.113

 

m’Eugene Kinckle Jones, "A Dream, A Quarter Century, A
Reality! How the Urban League Has Served," Opportunity vol.
13 (November 1935): 329: "Training Negro Social Workersa The
Story of the Urban League Fellowships," Opportunity vol. 13
(November 1935): 333-4.

110There is a string of letters located in DULP-MHC, Box
1, Files 25-28: and Box 3, Files 8, 10, and 12.

111Letter to Dancy, from Arnold T. Hill (NUL), July 11,
1935, DULP-MHC, Box 9, File 20.

1“Helen Wright, "Biographical Material for the National
Urban League Fellowship Competition," DULP-MHC, Box 9, File
20.

113Jones, "Training Negro Social Workers," 333.

44

Dancy attempted to establish three social work
scholarships (intended to become part of the National Urban
League Fellowship program) for African American graduate
students attending the University of Michigan. Dancy made a
scholarship proposal to the Horace A. Rackham Fund in 1935
stating that "the League feels that greater stress should be
put upon the training for those of the race who will
eventually occupy positions of leadership in the field of
social service."“‘ He argued that many black students who
completed undergraduate degrees in sociology could not pursue
graduate education due to inadequate finances. Dancy noted
that the League had "found a scarcity of competent people to
fill the jobs that frequently are referred to it” because of
the lack of educational opportunity open to African
Americans.”’

The Rackham Fund board deliberated over the 1935 proposal

and concluded that the "request was vague. " One member

 

11‘The Urban League was one of many organizations
eliciting Rackham Fund grants in the mid-1930's. Horace
Rackham, the Ford multi-millionaire, died in 1933, at which
time the Rackham Fund was established. Detroit Free Press, 9
July 1933, DULP-MHC, Box 25.

1”Letter to Dancy, from Arnold Hill, May 13, 1935, DULP-
MHC, Box 3, File 17; letter to the Fund, from Dancy, July 17,
1935, United Community Service Central File, ALHUA-WSU, Box
122, File 18: letter to Mark.Knapp, from.Dancy, July 17, 1935,
DULP-MHC Box 3, File 18: letter to Dancy, from the Rackham
Fund, August 1, 1935, United Community Service Central File,
ALHUA-WSU, Box 122, File 18: letter to Mr. Parker and Miss
Whiting, from P. Dodge, August 2, 1935: and, letter to the
Board of Trustees, Rackham Fund, from P. Dodge, August 2,
1935, United Community Service Central File, ALHUA-WSU, Box
34, File 20

45

questioned the validity of donating money without
consideration for "poor white" social workers. Although the
board recognized the need for "better trained colored social
workers in the field," and the difficulty African Americans
faced in obtaining education, they delayed granting fellowship
funds. The Board contended that "a well financed school of
social work could be of greater use to the Urban League than
merely three scholarships."“‘ Clearly, however, these two
matters need not have been mutually exclusive.

The absence of a well funded, accredited social work
program in the Detroit vicinity prior to 1935 had created
considerable concern throughout the city's social work
establishment for two primary reasons. First, the tremendous
need generated by the Great Depression necessitated that a
vast number of workers be trained to address increasingly
complex social welfare problems. Second, the city’s social
work establishment was well aware that even junior membership
in the AASW required professional course work. Hence, the
Detroit Chapter of the AASW and Detroit Community Union worked
in conjunction to provide supplemental courses between 1930

and 1935.11., Instructors taught the first courses on a

 

11‘Memos, Detroit Urban League Papers and Rackham Fund
Papers, 1935, United Community Service Central File, ALHUA-
WSU.

11"The Detroit Chapter of the AASW had its first meeting
on. January 25, 1929. Its. membership requirements were
identical to those of the National AASW. united Community
Service Central File, ALHUA-WSU, Box 1, Files 23 and 15.

46
voluntary basis and students did not receive university credit
for the work. However, by 1932 students obtained interim
credit towards AASW junior membership for taking the
classes.“‘

Although it is impossible to know exactly how many
African American women enrolled in these special courses,
evidence suggests that a number of black women in.Detroit.were
able to seize the opportunity to obtain education and improve
their resumes. For example, in 1930 Miss Mildred McLeod,
already a graduate of Talledega College in Alabama, enhanced
her education by taking courses offered in social case work,
youth behavior, and the family.” Detroit's social work
leaders taught many of these courses which provided black
women with a unique opportunity to make important contacts.
For some African American women, contact with the city's
social work leaders translated into letters of recommendation
and even job opportunities. For example, early in 1930,
McLeod took a course offered by Leon Frost, Director of the

Children's Aid Society: later that year she secured employment

 

11"Celcilia Barns, Alan Clinton-Cirocco, Sari Finkelstein,
and Jim McCarthy, "Fifty Years of Social Work Education at
Wayne State University: An Historical Sketch" (M.A. Thesis,
Wayne State University, 1981), 10—11.

11’Letter to Dancy, From Detroit Community Union, Dec.,
10, 1930, DULP-MHC Box 2, File 7: "Professional Courses for
Social Workers, 1931-2," DULP-MHC, Box 2, File 8: Letter to
Miss Mary C. Kenny, Department of Public Welfare, From John
Dancy, March 12, 1930, DULP-MHC, Box 32, File 2.

47

with. the Society.“0 In. 1931, Miss Ernestine Singleton
received a glowing letter of recommendation from Frost after
completing his course. It is interesting, however, to note
some of the language used by Frost. He states that "it would
not be a waste of time to give [Miss Singleton] intelligent
encouragement” believing that women like her should be "drawn
into the field of Negro workers."121

In October of 1934, the AASW Detroit Chapter bulletin
announced that professional courses for university credit in
social work would be offered at the University of Detroit, the
University of Michigan, Mary Grove College, and Wayne
University, although none of these schools had as of yet
received AASSW accreditation.m However, with financial
assistance from the Rackham and McGregor Funds, the University
of Michigan program reorganized its curriculum by 1935 to
satisfy the accreditation standards.123 Michigan joined the
ranks of thirty-three universities fulfilling the AASSW 1932

standard which required accredited schools to offer at least

 

1“Letter to Madeline Fowler, Secretary DCSW, From.Dancy,
Oct. 7, 1930, DULP-MHC, Box 2, File 5.

mLetter'to John Dancy, from Leon Frost, March 19, 1931,
DULP-MHC, Box 32, File 2.

12”Bulletin of the American Association of Social Workers,
Detroit Chapter, October 1934, DULP-MHC, Box 6, File 28.

m"Historical Sketch of University of Michigan School of
Social Work," Finders Aid, School of Social Work Papers,
Michigan Historical collections, Bentley Historical Library,
University of Michigan: Phyllis I. Vroom, "An Institutional
History of Wayne State University School of Social Work" M.A.
Thesis, Wayne State University, 1983): Whalen, 18.

48

one year of graduate-level course work.“ Although not
officially accredited until the 1941-42 academic year, Wayne
did reorganize and establish a graduate social work program in
the mid-30's. Wayne awarded its first three M.A. degrees in
social work in 1936, a number which remained fairly constant
until the close of the decade.”” It is not possible to know
for certain how many African American students completed the
social work programs at Wayne or the University of Michigan
(as the universities did.not record.the break.down.of students
by race): however, it is not likely that many African
Americans had significant access to these programs. For
example, in 1934, blacks comprised just over one percent of
Wayne’s total student body.“‘

The establishment of special courses and social work
programs at the area universities may have helped some black
women obtain the education needed for AASW membership,
however, the professional stamp continued to elude others.
Using his influence both as Urban League director and AASW
Detroit Chapter committee chairman, Dancy persistently wrote

recommendation letters for black women seeking Association

 

1“Leighninger, 36-7.

1"”Patricia Bartkowski, "School of Social Work 1930-1952:”
and, Enrollment Report, Wayne State University Archives, Wayne
State University.

1“Report, 1934, DULP-MHC, Box 8, File 16: Enrollments
1914-1947, Wayne State University Archives, Wayne State
University.

49
membership.”" Although the association had accepted a
number of African Americans by the mid-1930's, Dancy
complained in 1936 that admission standards made it difficult
for many to gain access into the professional

organization.128

 

‘”Letter to Dancy, from AASW Detroit Chapter, March 14,
1930, Box 2 File 1: letter to Mrs. Mable Ussell, from Dancy,
May 22, 1933, Box 32, File 2: letter to AASW, from Dancy,
February 22, 1936, Box 2, File 28, DULP-MHC.

1“Minutes of Meeting, AASW Detroit Chapter, Jan. 10,
1936, DULP-MHC, Box 6, File 28; and, Survey [November 1936],
DULP-MHC, Box 3, File 29.

CHAPTER 4
SOCIAL WORK IN DETROIT

THE DEPRESSION ERA

The onset of the Great Depression created opportunities
for African American social workers despite the AASW’s
exclusionary requirements. Tremendous economic displacement
created a relief load well beyond the capacities of the
existing public and private agencies. As the Federal
government for the first time channeled large sums of money
into public relief, there was a demand for an "army of
workers, federal, state, and local." In fact, Dr. Robert W.
Kelso, a prominent leader in Detroit's social work
establishment, contended that the overall expansion prompted
by the Depression gave the field "its first chance to become
a forthright and thoroughgoing profession with opportunity to
render service to the public comparable to the professions of
law, medicine and engineering."“’ To the chagrin of the
AASW, the Detroit Department of Public Welfare, like that in
many other' cities, was forced. to lower its educational

qualifications for an emergency classification of family

 

1"“‘Dr. Robert W. Kelso, "The Permanent Effects of the
Depression Upon Social Work Structure," (April 29, 1939),
United Community Services Central File, ALHUA-WSU.

50

51

investigators.”° In fact, eighty-five percent of the public
agency's staff in 1936, was added after 1930.131

Aware that the city's Welfare Department intended to
expand, Dancy contacted African American social workers (both
those in need of employment and those seeking advancement in
the field) and encouraged them to apply for positions. In a
1933 letter to Mrs. Dallas Dutton Wells, a woman educated at
the University of Michigan and trained at the Children's Aid
Society, Dancy wrote, "I note that thirty new workers are to
be taken on by the Department of Public Welfare . . . It seems
to me that you ought to make application for one of these
places . . . I think there will be but few whose credentials
will surpass yours." Dancy stressed.that she "Look after this
matter immediately in case you are interested."”’ A number
of African Americans benefitted from the department's

expansion. Between 1929 and 1936 alone, at least twenty-five

 

1”This action was contrary to the wishes of the AASW who
had long pushed the public agencies to comply with the minimum
educational hiring standards constituted by the association.
By lowering the education requirements for employment, the
country’s Welfare Departments were more or less mounting a
direct challenge to the social work leadership, who, even in
a time of desperate need for expanded services, were still
asking how exclusive they could be. The social work
leadership feared that lowering standards would damage the
overall professional status of social work. Please see,
Leighninger, Chapter 3.

mWhalen, 10.

132Letter to Dancy, from Mrs. Dallas D. Wells, February
28, 1933, DULP-MHC, Box 32, file 6: and, letter to Mrs. Dallas
Dutton‘Wells, from Dancy, March 9, 1933, DULP-MHC, Box 2, File
27.

52
blacks worked as investigators in the Department, with an
additional woman (Sophia Cole) obtaining a supervisory
post.133 By 1938, approximately thirty-five African
Americans held stable social work positions at the
Department.”‘

The problems generated by the Great Depression only
exacerbated the already troubling social and economic
circumstances found in much of urban black America. In 1931
Dancy reported to the Detroit Community Union that "the whole
adult Negro population of Detroit has at some time or other
made use of [the League's] services."“” When other segments
of the nation began to perceive at least signs of recovery,
many in urban black communities failed to experience any
measure of relief. In 1933, the Department of Public Welfare
reported that seventy-six percent of welfare dependent
families in Detroit’s "blighted areas" were black.
Additionally, the percentage of African American case loads
increased almost ten percent between 1933 and 1934 alone.”‘

The city's social work structure had no choice but to

acknowledge and address the unique and troubling situation

 

133Survey [Nov. 1936], DULP-MHC, Box 3, File 29.

1"‘Letter to Mr. Claude A. Barnett, Director of the
Associated Negro Press, from Dancy, March 3, 1938, DULP-MHC,
Box 4, File 12.

1“’-"Letter to Mr. Dodge, From John Dancy, June 24, 1931,
United Community Service Central File, ALHUA-WSU, Box 34,
File, 19

1“"Public Welfare," DULP-MHC, BOX? FILE?

53

faced by Detroit’s black communities. In February of 1934,
Cecile Whalen, from the Department of Public Welfare,
requested that Dancy come and speak before staff members "on
some phases of recent social problems as they particularly
affect the Negro."137 In May of that same year, the Council
of Social Agencies of Metropolitan Detroit wrote to Dancy
expressing concern about the education and training needs of
the African Americans interested in social work careers.”’3
In the early thirties, the state of Michigan had.become one of
only five states in the country to establish a department to
research and study the conditions affecting African Americans
throughout the state.”’ Similarly, in 1935, the Detroit
Department of Public Welfare took steps towards instituting a
"colored" division.“°

As government and private welfare funds diminished under
the tremendous demand created by the Depression, the social
work structure itself began to crumble under financial
pressure. Although the Great Depression initially provided
a boost to African American social workers, the unrelenting
nature of the economic crisis soon undermined their efforts.

Increasingly in the 1930's, Dancy replied to social work

 

13.,Letter to Dancy, from Cecile Whalen, February 14, 1934,
DULP-MHC, Box 3, File 2.

1”Letter to Dancy, from Earl N. Parker, May 11, 1934, Box
3, File 6.

13’Washington, "Negroes," 316.

noHaynes, "Negroes," 292.

54

employment inquiries by writing "I know of no opening for
colored women or white women for that matter, for Detroit is
in the throes of a serious industrial depression." He was
particularly discouraging to people seeking employment from
outside Detroit, believing that all opportunities should be
reserved for African Americans from within the city. In a
1933 letter to one Boston woman, Dancy wrote "at the present
time there is absolutely no chance for employment in any of
our Community Centers, or Settlements. Most of the Settlement
Houses and Community Centers are on the verge of closing
because of financial depression."m

In 1933, when even.the Detroit Urban League cut its staff
from nine members to five, and the Community Fund declared a
fiscal emergency for Detroit's entire social service
structure, many African Americans continued to work in the
capacity of federal relief workers or volunteers.“2 As
existing positions increasingly became part of the Federal
Government's Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the
1930’s, Dancy'was quick to recommend and secure posts for well
educated and trained African American social workers.“’ In

January of 1934, Dancy recommended. a number of .African

 

1“Letter to Mrs. Dorothy Fassitt, from Dancy, May 22,
1933, DULP-MHC, Box 2, File 29.

1“Letter to "Contributor", from Percival Dodge, May 27,
1933, DULP-MHC, Box 2, File 29: and, [1933], DULP-MHC, Box 2,
File 24.

1”Letter To George W. Cathcart, from Dancy, February 4,
1936, DULP-MHC, Box 3, File 22.

55
American social workers for a s1um.clearance project, stating
that "in choosing these people I have tried to make use of
college trained individuals belonging in Detroit and in need
of work. "1“ Those Dancy recommended included thirty-one
individuals*with.education and training along the lines of the

following:

Thelma Garvin
University of Illinois - A.B., 1930
Courses at University of Chicago - Sociology
2 years Teaching in Atlanta, GA
Provident Hospital Social Services Case-work

Marguerite Stephens
City College - A.B.
Seven years Group work - Franklin Street
Settlement
Three months Case work Detroit urban League
Four years Counselor - Y.W.C.A CAMP

Ruth Anderson

Wilberforce - A.B.

Graduate work at University of Michigan

and University of Cincinnati

Seven years teaching experience

Volunteer Social work at Children’s Aid
Society (Investigation and Case
Work)“’

Other well educated and trained African Americans
remained unemployed but continued to work as social service
providers in the capacity of volunteers . The City-wide

Recreation Council recruited and placed trained and untrained

people alike to engage in voluntary service. The Council even

 

1“Letterto John Dallenger, from John Dancy, January 17,
1934, DULP-MHC, Box 3, File 1.

“’Prospective Applicants for work on Federal C.W.A.
Project Number 292, January 11, 1934, DULP-MHC, Box 3, File 1.

56
offered to provide the Detroit Urban League with volunteers.
One of the biggest problems all cities faced as a result of
the Great Depression was a way to keep the "unemployed
occupied in a useful manner."“‘

Aware of the limited opportunities available to African
Americans during the Depression era, some social workers
attempted to ensure that upon retirement or advancement, other
African Americans replaced them. For instance, Lilian Bowles
Brooks, a social worker for Goodwill Services, informed Dancy
in 1936 of her pending retirement. She encouraged him to try
to place another African American woman worker, as she feared
without prodding a white woman would receive her post.“7

Although it is difficult to make sense of the mixed
impact that the Depression had on social work in Detroit, it
is possible to get a sense of the distribution, social
standing, and racial make up of the city's public and private
agencies in the 1930’s. In 1936 the Detroit Chapter of the
AASW distributed a survey to the city's public and private
agencies. The Association wanted to obtain data on the
education, training, experience, duties, salaries, gender and
racial make up of Detroit's social work professionals. From
the estimated 765 professional social workers in the city in

1936, they received 516 responses, representing forty-four

 

1“‘Letter to Dancy, from Anne Sprague, May 12, 1933 and,
May 17, 1933, DULP-MHC, Box 2, File 29.

“’Letter to Dancy, from Lilian Bowles Brooks, December 4,
1936, DULP-MHC, Box 3, File 30.

57

agencies. Analysis of the information became part of a
published government report in 1938. With the exception of
one reference stating that six percent of Detroit's social
workers were black, the report included no discussion of
African Americans in the profession. According to a table
contained in the report, however, seven of the forty-four
responding agencies stated that they employed African American
social workers (see table 2). The Department of Public
Welfare and the Children’s Aid Society had the largest number
of African Americans in their employ.“°

The report's data on salaries makes a considerable
statement about the professional status of social work by the
mid-1930's, as well as the position of the African American
worker within the Detroit structure. The 1923 Federal
Classification Act set "an entrance salary of at least $2,000
per year" as a standard requirement for a position to be
considered ”professional." Thirteen years later, the median
salary for the social workers responding to the survey was
$1,573, "less than the minimum adequate budget for a wage
earner's family as computed by the Visiting Housekeepers
Association." Without question, the Depression reduced
salaries in all professions. However, as pointed out by
historian Daniel Walkowitz, even in the late 1920's, prior to
the onset of the Depression, the average social work income

proved insufficient to fulfill middle-class aspirations. In

 

“'Whalen, 2-3 .

58
fact, many single women found it difficult to as much as
support themselves on their social work salary.“’

The vast majority of African American social workers
employed in the Detroit structure worked in the two lowest
paying sectors of the public and private agencies. In fact,
the private children's agency's median income was a mere
$1,418, the lowest of all categories for social work
employment. The Children's Aid Society, the private agency in
which many African American women had found employment over
the years, fell into this category.“°

Detroit’s African American social work leaders, such as
Dancy and Whitby, remained optimistic about the position of
African Americans in the city’s social work structure. The
number of professional black social workers in the city had
increased almost steadily between 1915 and 1940. By 1938,
Dancy reported 100 African Americans employed as social
workers.151 By contrast, in most other areas of employment,
African Americans confronted seriously depressed job prospects
in the late 1930’s. For example, after a brief hiring boom in

1937, black auto workers experienced another bottoming out in

 

1"Walkowitz, 1063.
1“Whalen, 11, 37, 51, 54.

1“Letter to John A. Johnson, from Dancy, May 5, 1938,
DULP-MHC, Box 10, File 16.

59
1938.152 All and all, the number of employed African
Americans in Detroit decreased from twenty-eight thousand
prior to the Depression to only ten thousand by 1938.

Dancy did not take the professional successes of black
social workers for granted. In December of 1938, he reflected
on what he believed to be the responsibility of African
Americans in the social work profession. He wrote that

the day of glamour in social work . . .. is over

and things are now measured by scientific rules.

These tools should be known and used so that our

results will not be found lacking. No longer can

we expect employers to give jobs unless they

believe we have something to offer. It is our duty

to sell them the idea of our usefulness and ability

to do the job. In seeking job opportunities we

must make use of that dormant pioneering approach

and go out and seek. Don't wait for someone else

to lay the ground work and when the 'band wagon’ is

passing, think there is room for us - for it will

be filled long before it reaches us.“°

Perhaps Dancy was underestimating the barriers that
African Americans would continue to confront into the 1940's.
Detroit’s black social workers persisted in their efforts to
address problems of unemployment, housing, and health as new
waves of southern migrants moved north. While the United
States recovered from the economic depression of the 1930's,

new tensions developed.as a result of the urban race riots and

the imminent war. These issues would capture the time and

 

1“’Letter to Mr. L. F. Coles, from Dancy, March 9, 1938;
and Letter to E.K. Jones, from Dancy, March 10, 1938, DULP-
MHC, Box 4, File 12.

1"""John Dancy, [Dec. 1938?], DULP-MHC, Box 4, File 25.

60

energy of Detroit's black and white social workers. In 1940,
however, African Americans were celebrating as Detroit hosted
the international exhibition, "75 Years of Progress of the
Negro." National black leaders such as Eugene Kinckle Jones
and Mary McLeod Bethune served as international advisors for
the event. Detroit's black social workers invested
considerable energy preparing for the occasion. Grisby served
as the exhibition's "Co-ordinator of Exhibits and
Organizations," and Dancy worked as a local committee
person.“‘ The exhibition celebrated social, political, and
economic advancement: however, as Detroit's African American
social workers' struggle to provide for themselves and their
community demonstrates, new obstacles accompanied every
victory.

In these turbulent times, African American social workers
clearly established a permanent professional base in Detroit.
Although not represented in proportion to the needs of their
communities, or even their numbers as an African American
population, these social workers broke through both racial and
professional barriers between 1916 and 1940. Using the
resources and networks which developed on the local and
national levels amongst African Americans, and using their own
stamina to obtain education and opportunity usually denied to

blacks during this era, these individuals carved.out.their own

 

1“"75 Years of Progress of the Negro Shown in
International Exposition, May--June, 1940, Detroit.Michigan,"
DULP-MHC, Box 4, File 28.

61
careers while also providing desperately needed services to
the city’s various black communities. In the thirties and
forties, black workers who had made their way into the
profession continued to seize opportunities and move into
different, more challenging, and increasingly prestigious

posts.

CONCLUSION

Although this is not the final word on African American
social workers in Detroit, this research demonstrates that
blacks in Detroit successfully wielded the collective
resources of African Americans locally and nationally to
construct a base for social work in the city. My research
also reveals that many sources and questions remain which
could contribute to our understanding of social work and
social service provided by, and for, African Americans in
Detroit during the Great Migration and Great Depression eras.
If time permitted for additional research, I would begin by
examining more closely the social work provided by Detroit's
black churches. I know that Bethel African Methodist
Episcopal has extensive papers which might uncover information
about the black social workers who carried out services in
their relief department. I would ask questions about the
relationship between the League and church relief providers
and examine the degree of "professionalism" found among the
church workers.

Next, I would attempt to track down some of the men and
women who worked as professional social service providers. I
know their voices are largely absent from this thesis. I

attempted to trace the whereabouts of a number of women;

62

63

however, I had little success. I am confident that
conversations with, these women ‘would help :me to better
evaluate the gender dimension of the emergence of black social
work in Detroit. I have largely drawn from the words of the
African .American (male) social work leadership and
organizational records. In some respects I believe I have
fallen into the source trap, in which the voices of women are
left unheard.

Notwithstanding, I have learned a great deal about the
unfolding of professional social work for African Americans
locally and nationally. I believe I could expand this thesis
into a doctoral dissertation by developing a number of themes
I have only touched on here. Looking at the larger question
of "African American Women and Relief in Detroit, 1900-1950"
I would continue to examine female migration, women's
neighborhood, club and church work, the role of women in the
Detroit Urban League and NAACP, and the professional
development of women in social work, medicine, and even

education.

APPENDI X

TABLE 1

DISTRIBUTION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN SOCIAL WORKERS IN DETROIT

MARCH 11, 1930

Women's Division Police Department

Probation Department Municipal Court
Juvenile Court Probation Department
Department of Public Welfare

Visiting Nurses Association 1
Children’s Aid Society

Girls Protective League

Visiting Housekeepers

Detroit Urban League

YMCA

YWCA

Baptist Christian Center

Recreation Commission 1
Detroit Community Fund

Board of Health Nurses

Sophie Wright Settlement

Episcopal Church Eight Mile Rd

Department of Health

U'II-‘UDJ

NU-hU'IQNNUTN

H hthdub H

Source: DOLP-HIC, Box 2, '11. 1

64

TABLE 2

Statistics - 1936 survey
Detroit Mean of Gov. Research, 1930

 

____‘Ienl_

mu m. I. E. m. IL l. m. 11.. 2..
TOTALS 516 65 451 486 62 434 30 3 27
1. Big Brothers 1 1 - 1 1 - - - -
2. Boy Scouts 4 4 - 4 4 - - - -
3. Brightnoor Cass. 4 2 2 4 2 2 - - -
4. Casp Fire Girls 3 - 3 3 - 3 - - -
5. Children's Aid 38 3 35 31 2 29 7 1 6
6. Children's Center 11 1 10 11 1 10 ~ ~ ~
7. Consultation Bureau 6 - 6 6 - 6 - - -
8. Council of Soc Agen 5 - 5 5 - 5 - - -
9. Detroit Orth. Cnt 7 - 7 7 - 7 - - -
10. 8rd of Education 12 - 12 12 - 12 - - -
11. Council of Churches 2 1 1 2 1 1 - - -
12. Detroit Public Welt. 223 32 191 208 30 178 15 2 13
13. Evan Deaconess Hosp 1 - 1 1 - 1 - - -
14. Florence Crittenton 5 - 5 5 - 5 - - -
16. Girl Scouts 3 - 3 3 - 3 - - -
17. Girls Prat. League 7 - 7 6 - 6 1 - 1
18. Grace Hospital 4 - 4 4 - 4 - - -
19. Harper Hospital 5 - 5 5 - 5 - - -
20. Jewish Child P1cnt. 4 1 3 4 1 3 - - -
21. Jewish Cos: Center 7 4 3 7 4 3 - - -
22. Jewish Soc. Services 9 2 7 9 2 7 - - -
23. League of Handicap. 3 1 2 3 1 2 - - -
24. League of Cath. Won. 12 1 11 12 1 11 - - -
25. Luella Hannan Mes 1 - 1 1 - 1 - — -
26. Mich. Soc. Crip. Cld 2 1 1 2 1 1 - - -
27. Mich. Children's Aid 5 - 5 5 - 5 - - -
28. North End Clinic 4 - , 4 4 - 4 - - -
29. Polish Aid Society 1 - 1 1 ~ 1 - ~ -
30. Providence Hospital 4 - 4 4 - 4 - - -
31. St. Francis Home 1 - 1 1 - 1 - - -
32. St. Joseph Mercy Map 1 - 1 1 - 1 - - -
33. St. Vincent dePaul 13 l 12 13 1 12 - - -
34. Servicesen’s Bureau 8 6 2 8 6 2 - - -
35. Sophie Wright Settle 6 1 5 6 1 4 1 - 1
36. Tau Beta Cons. House 2 1 1 2 1 1 - - -
37. Traveler's Aid 5 - 5 5 - 5 - — -
38. Visiting Housekprs 4 - 4 4 - 4 - - -
39. Wayne University 1 - 1 1 - 1 - - -
40. Woman’s Hospital 4 - 4 4 - 4 - - -
41. YWCA 21 - 21 19 - 19 2 - 2
42. Women's Div.- Police 42 - 42 39 - 39 3 - 3
43. Eloise Parole Clinic 11 - 11 10 - 10 1 - 1
44. Ford Republic 2 1 1 2 1 1 - - -

(55

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