The Political Activities of Detroit Clubwomen in the 1920s: A Challenge and a Promise

Conclusion

Conclusion No effort is in vain; the reward is in the doing. New Era Study Club Song, “Early History of the New Era Study Club” In 1930, Detroit was mired in a deep economic depression. The city was confronted with all its previous municipal responsibilities plus an enormous public relief burden. In July of that year, the mayor, Charles Bowles, was recalled. In the subsequent election, Frank Murphy was elected mayor. Clubwomen supported Murphy because his philosophy of government was similar to theirs. When he declared his candidacy , he echoed Progressive Era concerns, saying that Detroit was “in ashes, a political ruin, burned to the ground by hate, by discord, by selfishness, by government put to corrupt and selfish ends.” He promised to maintain his “conception of social and progressive justice.”1 In opposing the business-sponsored candidate, white clubwomen displayed the same political independence they had in the 1923 Recorder ’s Court election. Although black and white clubwomen did not work together, both groups had strong supporters among them for Murphy. Murphy was a Democrat, but the president of the Detroit Women’s Republican Club voted for him. African American women also voted independently of their leaders; Beulah Young pledged to “keep all the coloured people’s votes in Detroit sewed up” for Murphy. Murphy received a majority, sometimes as high as 80 percent, in all the black precincts.2 Detroit women both black and white emerged from the 1920s as influential, but seldom crucial, players in Detroit politics. A 1931 article in The Detroiter described the progress twentieth-century cities had made in areas like public health, recreation, and education, all areas in which Detroit clubwomen had sponsored programs. The article predicted that “The political intelligence of the coming city 144 CONCLUSION will be better organized than at present, with women, labor and business representatives in council.”3 While such praise was certainly deserved , overall, clubwomen were unable to accomplish as much as they perhaps wanted to or could have. The explanation for that qualified success lies in the methodological and ideological strategies Detroit clubwomen used in their civic activities. Clubwomen entered into municipal politics maintaining their club affiliations, through which they attempted to influence officials and public policy. The choice of many to confine political work to within the clubs had organizational and practical considerations. They had used this methodology successfully in appealing to local and state governments before suffrage. Within their organizations, they were able to control their agenda and their method of work. As white women oftentimes jealously guarded their programs, so, too, did black women who believed they had to compromise their goals when they affiliated with white women.4 Even when black clubwomen offered overtures, they were never reciprocated. Detroit clubwomen’s political culture arose under circumstances that had changed by the time they acquired the franchise and yet they maintained many of the same strategies. For example, clubwomen’s aversion to partisan politics may have been a strategic error, considering the fact that many political decisions were made within the parties . Furthermore, even when they joined parties, women’s political independence caused male party regulars to regard them as suspect and unreliable. In the 1920s Detroit politics were vastly different than they had been only twenty years earlier with the advent of industrialization and a growing multiethnic and biracial population. Clubwomen took notice of these changes but did not significantly change their modus operandi. Clubwomen’s separate political traditions had methodological advantages as well as disadvantages. Pursuing political work alongside other club activities sometimes produced dissension within the ranks and created an overcrowded agenda where programs only received cursory attention. In addition, the press often marginalized club work by relegating news about their programs to the clubwomen’s pages, leaving them vulnerable to pejorative stereotypes about women’s political capabilities. Working often exclusively with other racially and 145 CONCLUSION socioeconomically similar clubwomen isolated them and clouded their judgment. Finally, clubwomen’s tendency to scrutinize political issues kept them well informed but also impeded their ability to attend to pressing issues. In Detroit clubwomen’s political culture had ideological implications that both enhanced and hindered their political effectiveness. Within the urban context of 1920s Detroit, clubwomen successfully championed policies to protect women and children from the worst abuses of an industrial economy. They sought to reduce crime by creating a more moral environment and advocated for more humane forms of incarceration...