“Bound to Them By a Common Sorrow”: African American Women, Higher Education, and Collective Advancement

• Published in: The Journal of African American history Vol. 100; no. 4; pp. 721 - 747
• Main Author: Perkins, Linda M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Silver Spring University of Chicago Press 01-10-2015
• Subjects: Access to education; African Americans; Black history; Civil rights; Gender; Higher education; Race; Women; United States > US
• ISSN: 1548-1867; 2153-5086
• DOI: 10.5323/jafriamerhist.100.4.04721

Perkins examines African American women's access to higher education in the United States before and after the founding of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) in 1915. The efforts of leading educated African American women to ensure their sisters were provided more educational opportunities will be examined, as well as their roles in the leadership of African American higher education. Utilizing the black feminist theory of intersectionality focusing on race, gender, and class, Perkins emphasizes the purposes and the types of secondary and higher education African American women obtained in various parts of the United States. As African American men gained civil rights denied to women, this impacted the men's and women's attitudes about African American women's higher education. Access to formal education increased for African Americans from the late 19th through the 20th century, however, and pronounced gender distinctions emerged and took on social and cultural significance.