A Nickel and a Prayer

INTRODUCTION

1 INTRODUCTION I n June of 1914, Jane Edna Hunter sought Booker T. Washington’s endorsement of the Phillis Wheatley Association (PWA or the Phillis Wheatley) of Cleveland, Ohio, to catapult the organization onto the national stage. Just three years earlier, she had relied on a nickel and a prayer in founding the PWA to ease young African American female migrants’ transitions into urban life. Hunter assured Washington that Cleveland’s Chamber of Commerce and many of the city’s respected citizens backed the PWA, and that she had written him on the advice of Mr. Powell, who she asserted would vouch for the effectiveness of the Association.1 Securing the support of an African American activist of Washington’s stature would help the PWA attract new patrons, offer more services, and position itself as the model institution for the racial uplift of African American women in the early twentieth century. Rather than contact Mr. Powell regarding the propriety of accepting Hunter’s invitation, however, Washington solicited confidential counsel from George A. Myers, a successful African American barbershop owner and Republican Party operative in Cleveland. Myers advised Washington not to endorse the PWA: The institution is hers, fostered by a few misguided whites endeavoring to relieve their conscience of the discrimination by the Y.W.C.A. against our women. The young woman at the head of this Institute . . . has no INT IN ON DU RO TROD TIO O UCT 2 Introduction standing among our better class of women. . . . It is my private opinion that the lady in question conceived the idea herself, in order to further her own aggrandizement and profit by the prestige of your approval and endorsement, holding the meeting in some one of the colored Churches and charging an admission thereto.2 Myers draws a distinction between himself, a member of Cleveland’s established black middle-class elite, and Hunter, the southern outsider whom he did not deem worthy of identification by name. He perceived any organization that advocated segregation as a threat to racial progress and seemed confident that he could thwart Hunter’s plans and implement his own integrationist strategy for black Clevelanders. About two months after receiving Hunter’s invitation, Washington politely declined due to his busy schedule.3 Despite Washington’s refusal to endorse the PWA, Hunter incorporated his philosophy into the development of its programs. In the mid-1930s, as she drafted the manuscript for her autobiography A Nickel and a Prayer, Hunter cited Washington’s emphasis on vocational education as the inspiration for her achievements: “His philosophy of the dignity of labor, of doing a common job in an uncommon way, attracted not only the attention of Northern friends, but brought the white South to realize the value of the Negro as a useful and productive laborer . . . it has been my chief concern to emphasize the teachings of Booker T. Washington for the great masses of my race. To seek constantly to raise the standards of working girls, through proper and adequate training.”4 That training stressed domestic service, but the PWA also offered young black women opportunities to prepare for careers in the legal, business, medical, industrial, and social services fields. This approach transformed many of her most ardent critics—including Myers—into supporters. About ten years after he thwarted her plans to secure Washington’s endorsement, Myers sent Hunter a $50 donation to assist PWA clients5 and later offered “moral and financial” support6 during the capital campaign. Introduction 3 Hunter’s activism was also influenced by strategies she developed during her formative years in the South: building personal and professional networks, seeking educational and employment opportunities, taking risks and responsibilities, and exercising Christian faith and fortitude. Born in 1882 to Edward and Harriet Milliner Harris, descendants of slaves, on Woodburn Farm in Pendleton, South Carolina, Jane Edna Harris grew up during the post-Reconstruction era, a time informed by the legacy of slavery and the broken promise of a New South. Nurtured by a supportive extended family, a tight-knit African American community, and sympathetic whites, Jane developed into a young woman who desired a life that Pendleton could not offer. After completing her education at Ferguson and Williams College, a boarding school for African American children in Abbeville , South Carolina, where black Presbyterian missionaries Rev. Emory and Mrs. Ella Williams emphasized middle-class American social graces complemented by instruction in reading, mathematics, science, and history...