'Sick and tired of being sick and tired': Black women and the National Negro Health Movement, 1915-1950

This dissertation examines the gender and class dynamics of one phase of the history of the black struggle for health care, the National Negro Health Movement from 1915 to 1950. By investigating specific health projects in rural Alabama and Mississippi, it demonstrates how poor African-Americans, especially midwives, facilitated the implementation of public health projects, even as they encountered some of the negative consequences of state intervention. Overall, black community women provided grassroots leadership, forming the backbone of this public health movement, which was a cornerstone of the civil rights activities of African-Americans during this period.; From 1890 to 1920 the health activities of organized black club women laid the foundation for the black health movement, which did not officially begin until 1915. Although men held most of the formal leadership positions within the movement, women did most of the grassroots organizing. Black women did not work in isolation but within a community network of female health advocates, including mothers, midwives, nurses, teachers, home demonstration agents, and sorority and club women. Female health advocates were the links between black communities and health services, and their primary contacts were poor black women.; Examination of class differences among African-Americans is key to interpreting the motivations and consequences of public health efforts. Reform efforts were not simply altruistic endeavors by the middle class to help the poor. Members of the black middle class stood to gain previously denied legitimacy by constructing a position for themselves as the moral superiors and leaders of poor black people.; During the period of legalized segregation from 1890 to 1950, prior to the modern black civil rights movement, civil rights activism often found expression through African-American negotiations with the state in the health care arena. The National Negro Health Movement marked a complex transition period between the separate black health organizing efforts from 1890 to World War I, and the integration efforts of the post-World War II period.