Black Women's Rural Activism: Organizations

Arkansas State University professor Cherisse Jones-Branch’s new book, Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps: Black Women’s Activism in Rural Arkansas, 1914-1965, was recently published by the University of Arkansas Press. A nexus of roles and organizations sustained such activism, from serving as Jeanes Supervising Industrial Teachers and Home Demonstration Agents, to belonging to the State Council of Home Demonstration Clubs, the Arkansas Association of Women’s Clubs, the Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation Negro Division, the National Council of Churches of Christ Home Missions Division, and the National Negro Home Demonstration Agents’ Association. These all provided platforms for community uplift.