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Epilogue In December 1921 Alice Woodby McKane, M.D., wrote a letter to Herbert J. Seligmann, the Jewish author and journalist who worked on publicity for the NAACP. McKane was writing in protest against Seligmann’s article for the New York Age in which he had criticized Marcus Garvey. At the heart of McKane’s complaint lay a frustration with those who tried to insist that there was only one solution, approach, or organization that could solve America’s race problem. For McKane, it was imperative that black Americans adopt the best of several strategies rather than limiting themselves to the ideas of one group: In the first place I claim membership in the Boston Branch of the N.A.A.C.P., the National Equal Rights League, and the U.N.I.A. A queer mixture you will no doubt say, but the contention to myself is that in each I see some good for the betterment of the race with which I am identified; and I therefore wish to add my small quota to each for not one alone of all three, to my way of thinking, cover the need. McKane believed that African Americans’ desire to work both independently of and at other times in cooperation with whites reflected their dual heritage : Many of us think in black of the black because that ancestral blood is in our veins. I am one of those, and I desire to see Africa preserved for Africans. . . . I therefore welcome Mr Garvey and what I call his constructive endeavour to better the black man’s conditions here and there. I have also another racial blood in me, the American Indian, and that coupled with the fact that I was born here and that my ancestors both red and black have fought for all that American Civilization holds dear, makes me feel that no one has a better right to enjoy the rights and privileges here than I and my kind; therefore, I contend for all the rights and privileges on that ground.1 Although the civil rights movement might provide a salary and career for some, McKane pointed out that many civil rights activists worked as vol- Epilogue / 201 unteers, in low-status positions because they believed in a cause. This letter from a grass-roots activist reveals what race leaders and salaried officers of national organizations were inclined to forget: that it was not a choice between working independently of whites or working with whites, but rather that both strategies were part of the solution to the race problem. Leaders and officers of the NAACP and UNIA, however, often believed that their membership should pledge themselves to only one approach. Garvey recognized and condemned this overlap in organizational membership when he banned joint membership of the UNIA and NAACP amidst the height of The Crisis’ campaign against his organization.2 By contrast, black women’s organizations relied on crossover and joint membership of the numerous organizations which they created. Black women ’s networks were incredibly important in sustaining individuals and organizations through years of change in the early twentieth century. At a time when many hotels and accommodations across the United States were segregated , the homes and workplaces of these women served as meeting places and havens from discrimination. These networks encouraged women who were acquaintances or colleagues to become friends and allies, and they supported each other’s projects when times were hard. Many of these networks were sustained through involvement with umbrella organizations such as the NACW and the YWCA as well as the literary networks that formed around publications such as The Crisis and the Negro World. The Colored Branch of the YWCA in New York City, though an affiliated branch of an interracial organization, became the central meeting place for black women looking to promote new ideas, organizations, and survival strategies in the early years of the Depression. These organizations facilitated a mentoring system that functioned across generational networks. For example, when the uninitiated Bethune first came to the 1912 NACW convention, Addie Hunton, who had been present at the founding of the NACW, took Bethune under her wing and became her mentor. In return, Bethune later guided Hunton’s daughter, Eunice Hunton Carter, whom she had picked out while working for the Colored Branch in New York. Carter went on to become a founding member of Bethune’s NCNW, for which she later acted as legal advisor, chair of the board of trustees, and accredited...

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