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five leaders฀who฀persevere Elected Officials Select a campaign committee and select for chairman (if possible) a prominent person, who has a following and who will take the responsibility seriously. Preferably a woman—for they have a deeper sense of something-or-other than men. I n the years up to 1945, women were elected to very few positions in Louisiana’s NAACP branches, certainly not proportional to their membership numbers, and none became presidents or treasurers . Women served mainly as vice-presidents, secretaries, and assistant -secretaries. New Orleans, as the cosmopolitan center of Louisiana, had the most stable branch over this period and had marginally wider avenues for women to enter the elected hierarchy of the organization, although within the parameters of traditional female roles. Baton Rouge and Monroe had only one female elective officer each throughout the 1930s and early 1940s. In Baton Rouge this was the redoubtable Mrs. D. J. Dupuy, who served as vice-president from 1929 to 1934; as secretary, 1935 to 1939 and 1942 to 1944; and briefly as assistant-secretary during 1941. Because of their administrative skills and social and professional links, women played vital leadership roles in the Louisiana NAACP branches, well beyond what their elected titles suggested.1 In the Monroe branch, the only woman to be elected as an officer was longtime NAACP member Mrs. H. W. Johnson, who served as vicepresident from 1936 to 1938. Johnson’s social and familial networks gave her access to this elected position. Her other official activities included being on the branch executive committee and chairing a special emergency committee in 1932 that raised funds for the NAACP central office. She was also an active Christmas seals seller, and was one of the managers of the membership drive of November 1935, chairing the women’s division in that campaign. Johnson’s role as vice-president, therefore, reflected her high-profile activism in the chapter and branch members’ estimation of her work. Furthermore, the Johnson family 100฀฀/฀฀in v isible฀activ ists was central to the city’s NAACP organization when membership numbers were restrained by the Depression. The branch’s 1939 membership roster includes Mrs. H. W. Johnson’s entire household: herself; her husband, Dr. F. W.; a daughter, Miss H. C.; and, in all likelihood, a son and daughter-in-law, Henry and Mary. Additionally, at a time when membership was generally low certain families and individuals became fundamental to branch strength and coherence as officers and committee members.2 Several women were also vice-presidents of the New Orleans branch, albeit occupying the post for short terms. Like Mrs. Johnson, their backgrounds suggest that they were central to the NAACP as individuals who held broad community and social interests during times of fluctuating membership numbers. For instance, Miss F. A. Lewis was vice-president for just one year, 1921, although she was to hold regular membership of the NAACP throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Lewis was an elementary teacher at Macarty School in New Orleans during this period and was, as expected, involved in other professional organizations and philanthropic causes in the city. In particular, she served on the city’s Parent Teacher Association (PTA), helped with voter registration drives, and participated in a collective effort by teachers to promote a form of black history via a New Orleans Colored Public School committee. Also she was heavily involved in working groups that sought to raise money for the W. E. & Frances Roberson Memorial Home for Colored Juvenile Delinquents under the auspices of the Tulane Avenue Baptist Church and other church denominations, which were mainly made up of NAACP members concerned for child welfare . The other two female vice-presidents of the New Orleans NAACP branch were also committed educators; Miss Thelma S. Shelby, who held the post in 1939, was a research assistant at Dillard University, and Miss Katie Wickham, 1941, was a teacher.3 The reasons branches elected women to serve as vice-presidents varied in the cities. The question remains, however, how far could it be said that such a role was a decision-making office, rather than just a symbol of status or respect? According to official descriptions, the vice-president served as a deputy of a branch president; in essence, a substitute in case the president was incapacitated or needed to delegate certain responsibilities. It would appear that women could be elected to such a post without...

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