Too Much to Ask

Black Women in the Era of Integration

Elizabeth Higginbotham

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Year: 2003
• Print ISBN: 9780807849897, 9780807826621
• eBook ISBN: 9780807875278
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: African American Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

In the 1960s, increasing numbers of African American students entered predominantly White colleges and universities in the northern and western United States. Too Much to Ask focuses on the women of this pioneering generation, examining their educational strategies and experiences and exploring how social class, family upbringing, and expectations — their own and others' — prepared them to achieve in an often hostile setting.

Drawing on extensive questionnaires and in-depth interviews with Black women graduates, sociologist Elizabeth Higginbotham sketches the patterns that connected and divided the women who integrated American higher education before the era of affirmative action. Although they shared educational goals, for example, family resources to help achieve those goals varied widely according to their social class. Across class lines, however, both the middle- and working-class women Higginbotham studied noted the importance of personal initiative and perseverance in helping them to combat the institutionalized racism of elite institutions and to succeed.

Highlighting the actions Black women took to secure their own futures as well as the challenges they faced in achieving their goals, Too Much to Ask provides a new perspective for understanding the complexity of racial interactions in the post–civil rights era.

CHAPTER 1 : THE WOMEN AND THE ERA

I didn't really see too much prejudice until I entered high school, which was at a seventh grade level. That was a mind blower. It was a time when people were beginning to get into “Black is beautiful” and recognizing their Blackness more. It was the same time when there were freedom schools. So I don't know if it was a reaction to my being involved in some of that, that brought out prejudice in the [White] people around me. Or if it was that I was all of the sudden in a school that was majority White. Teachers were reacting very differently. I had always been in the top of my class; there was never any hassles and then all of the sudden I was being given Cs when I felt there was nothing wrong with the composition. I was also competing with a group of people who were the tops from all across the city. So it might not have had anything to do with it, but when people were making remarks to my parents about my not belonging there [in the school] and that I wasn't going to work [out] there—different attitudes which would come through, that my father picked up on—then he started on how I was not going to let White people tell me that I didn't belong here. “We know you can do better.” That really sort of started me being aware and these hassles became personal, instead of being something that was happening to someone else.

—Denise Larkin, respondent from working-class background

As part of the baby boom cohort, Denise Larkin and many other African American youth came of age during a shifting racial climate in the United States.¹ Black youth born after World War II, especially those residing in the North, benefited from the lifting of some racial barriers in the 1950s and 1960s. This shift was most evident in the realm of education, especially for young people living outside of the South. In Denise's case, attending a prestigious public high school that uniformly sent the majority of its graduates to college was a clear benefit. Denise graduated in 1964 and proceeded to a predominantly White college in her native city. As young Black people desegregated schools, they might have gained in terms of educational preparation, but access to these environments was not without a cost.²

As they desegregated schools, Denise and many young people learned to negotiate two worlds. Armed with life skills from their families, Black women and men moved between predominantly Black settings and newly desegregated, yet still predominantly White settings. In the former, they were seen as full human beings and treasured for their unique talents and energy; in the latter, the reactions were quite mixed. While some White people might have celebrated their arrival, others viewed these new students through a lens of racial inferiority. In these new settings, the Black people drew upon the nurturing of their families to maintain positive self-esteem. They also used skills acquired to fight different forms of racism to hold on to their own sense of purpose and get the education they needed to achieve their goals. As this study illustrates, many women would master negotiations that would be part of a lifelong pattern of coping in predominantly White settings.

In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins (1990) noted that “Black women's lives are a series of negotiations that aim to reconcile the contradictions separating our own internally defined images of self as African-American women with our objectifications as the Other” (p. 94). Denise Larkin was recognized by her parents as very bright. In a long tradition of resistance to oppression, her parents wanted her to go as far as she could. Her potential was clear to many in her predominantly Black community. However, as a Black woman she would encounter people and settings where her talents would not be recognized and treatment would be based on race/gender stereotypes. In the Black community, the family is not just a site for reassurance, as daughters confront other images of their abilities, but also the place where children learn the critical importance of not letting White people define and set limits for them. Denise was to achieve not just for herself, but as a representative of a racial minority.³

How do people master such negotiations to ensure their success? The young women in this study rejected notions of Black inferiority; instead, they saw limited opportunities and racial prejudice as the real reasons that Black people may not be successful. Black families traditionally have equipped young people with alternative frameworks to meet the various forms of institutional racism they may encounter throughout their lives. Moving through the doors that previous generations had worked to open, Black youth had to hold their own and not let White people tell them where they belonged. These battles are serious business and tax the individuals, especially as young people like Denise became aware that such hassles were happening to them and not to someone else. Raised in families that held higher educational goals for their children, young women like Denise internalized these goals and then confronted educational systems that held different expectations for them as Black women. Relying upon stereotypical notions of Black women's abilities and inclinations, many White teachers and school officials would challenge the aspirations nurtured at home. However, the women in this study held on to their own definitions of themselves as they scaled institutional barriers in educational settings.

Undertaking this task requires one to learn to live with a certain degree of tension as one negotiates between the two worlds of home and school. These negotiations are not in vain; they contest the established racial order. For example, the actions of these women as they pursued their educational goals meant they rejected what White people had defined as their place. Personal and group challenges within social institutions produce social change (Omi and Winant 1994). As the racial climate shifts, Black women gain access to new spheres where their negotiations with racism likely continue. Students like Denise who desegregated schools paved the way for other students of color, especially by how they defined themselves in these settings.

The lives of the fifty-six Black women in this book were shaped by the significant social structural changes of the post–World War II era. The college-educated women featured here came of age in the 1950s and early 1960s. They personally witnessed a transformative period in U.S. history and were profoundly affected by a legacy of struggle. This group of women was not homogeneous; some were raised working class and some middle class. In the Black experience, social class is related to power in occupational settings, economic resources, information, expectations, and the strategies employed to overcome obstacles. The women from middle-class families grew up with high expectations as well as many resources to help them achieve their goals. The working-class women's families also had high expectations, but fewer material resources to secure their goals.

In this study, social class is determined by using a professional-managerial/working class division that is based on the mental/manual dichotomy developed by Harry Braverman (1974) and Nicos Poulantzas (1974). The parents in middle-class families were either professionals or managers, while the parents in working-class families were manual workers, including clerical, sales, and service workers (see Chapter 2). Braverman's mental/manual dichotomy captures critical differences between the families that speak not only to the parents’ level of control in the workplace, but also to the economic resources they could employ to express their values, needs, and priorities. For these families, supporting their daughters’ educational attainment was a priority. Parents’ economic resources and awareness of middle-class institutions, especially schools, would shape their daughters’ paths to college (see Chapters 3 and 7).

The adaptation of new strategies to challenge racial discrimination would shape these women's lives (see Chapter 4). Their parents initially stressed the personal importance of battling prejudice to prepare them for playing a role in the struggle for equality. Over time, the women would come to appreciate the role of institutionalized racism in their lives. However, their struggles, even with the successes that merit celebration, cannot be fully appreciated without attention to the costs. This book presents the social structural obstacles faced by Black women in this new era of race relations, the negotiations and creative strategies developed to scale the barriers that existed within integrated settings, and the costs of these achievements.

Four Women Go to College

To Jennifer Taylor, a respondent who was raised working class, leaving her home in a mid-Atlantic city to enter East City University in 1964 was like a dream come true. Neither of Jennifer's parents had graduated from high school, but, like the majority of the Black community, they valued higher education. Mr. Taylor worked hard over a lifetime in different service jobs. Mrs. Taylor left domestic service after the birth of her second child to devote more time to her family. The Taylors were determined to save money to give their children advantages they never had, including a college education. Mr. Taylor promised Jennifer the funds to attend the college of her choice. The family's hard work and the shifting racial climate in their city made it possible for the Taylors to move to a townhouse in a predominantly White, central city neighborhood. Jennifer, who was nine years old at the time of the move, remembered, “It [the move] meant a better house and better schools.”

Mr. and Mrs. Taylor had attended segregated schools in their youth, but the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision created new options for their children. The changing climate gave more Black Americans living in the North access to predominantly White educational institutions.⁴ But gaining access to school was just one stage; Black parents then had to advocate for their children to ensure fair treatment. They regularly visited the schools to question the treatment of their children and to monitor the activities of teachers. Parents made sure their children were in the appropriate courses to reach their goals of college attendance.⁵ The advocacy of the Taylors was critical to making the most of new opportunities. Hence, Jennifer attended an excellent high school where she was one of the few Black students in the honors program.

Once in the honors program in her integrated high school, Jennifer accepted the challenge and worked hard to turn an opportunity into a real advantage. In her school, Jennifer was close friends with Black peers who shared her aspirations of attending college. Perhaps one of the most difficult adjustments she made was learning to deal with pressures of competition. Jennifer recalled, “I had to recognize the fact that competition is omnipresent, and yet, can be enjoyable if not taken to a life-or-death extreme.” She excelled in high school, and her grades earned her a partial college scholarship. In 1964, with her scholarship and the family savings in hand, Jennifer left home to attend a private college in East City.

Robin Washington, also raised working class, did not have the benefits of a two-parent family. After her husband left, Mrs. Washington, a high school graduate, raised five children on welfare and sent them all to college. When Robin, the second oldest, was ten years old, the family moved into a public housing project in East City, which meant a better neighborhood for the family. The Washingtons were the first of many Black families who would reside there. As Robin grew up, this housing project slowly became more integrated. In her adult years the majority of residents were Black Americans. Coming of age, Robin observed that “most families were on welfare or dependent upon a single, maybe sporadic, low wage.” Robin attended the local elementary school, which reflected the social class and racial composition of her neighborhood.

Mrs. Washington combined community work with child rearing, and she was diligent about both. While she could not earn additional money to provide her children with many material resources, she used the means within her reach to encourage her children in academic pursuits.⁶ Robin recalled her years growing up: “I lived through reading. It was a strong influence on me. My mother was in book clubs, record clubs, and other things. . . . There were always lots of books, magazines, and records [in the apartment]. We were never dressed as well as others, even though we were all on welfare. But my mother had thirteen magazine subscriptions. We always had books and I was reading more than other children in the housing project.” Mrs. Washington also closely monitored her children's educational progress.

Robin did very well in elementary school and attended an all-girls college preparatory high school, where high grades were a requirement for entrance. This public high school, like its all-boys counterpart, sent the majority of its graduates to college, many to prestigious institutions.⁷ Robin performed well in high school and was encouraged by school officials to apply to prestigious colleges. Upon graduation in 1964, scholarships and plans to work part-time during college enabled Robin to proceed to a private university.

Allison Cross's parents both held advanced degrees. In the 1960s only about a quarter of Black college students had parents with a college education, and an even smaller percentage had parents with advanced degrees (McGhee 1983). Mr. Cross, a public sector scientist, advanced within his occupation as his family grew. Mrs. Cross initially worked as a librarian and teacher when Allison was young. She left paid employment when she had her second child, devoting her time to raising her children, who eventually would number six. Mr. Cross was also actively involved in the rearing of his children.

Increasing economic opportunity for the Black middle class and the changes in the racial climate of the nation influenced Allison's route to college. As the family's economic situation improved, they could translate these gains into improved housing and new educational opportunities in their mid-Atlantic city. When Allison was an infant, her family had lived in an apartment; they moved to a small home in a Black community when she was a toddler. They moved again when she was ten years old, this time to a larger home in a predominantly White neighborhood. This move was meant to give the children access to schools with an excellent reputation. Allison's high school was initially integrated and then became predominantly Black. It offered a high level of academic preparation, especially for middle-class students. In 1964 Allison went to East City to attend a private university.

While making college a reality for Jennifer and Robin required many family assets and much energy, the transition from high school to college appeared seamless for Allison. All her life, it was assumed that Allison and her siblings would at least attain their parents’ level of education. Allison mostly enjoyed her social experiences in high school, and academics were secondary. However, neither Allison nor her parents ever doubted that she would attend college. Allison's Black friends, who were either in honors or the college preparatory program, were also college bound. Allison recalled her friends as “middle- and upper-middle-income students who aspired to professional positions like doctor or lawyer. Our aspirations were generally vague, but involved making money and having high status.”

Both of Helene Montgomery's parents were professionals. Mr. Montgomery was a health professional and Mrs. Montgomery, a librarian, worked continually outside the home while she raised four children. The Montgomery family moved into a White section of their Midwest city when Helene, their oldest child, was five years old. This area quickly became majority Black, but Helene remarked that it remained a “stable middle-class and white-collar neighborhood.”

In the Montgomery family, as in many Black middle-class homes, there was the expectation that all the children would attend college. To ensure that goal, Mr. and Mrs. Montgomery carefully monitored their children's schooling. The children went to a Catholic grammar school, but their parents then placed them in the public high school. Helene's integrated high school offered an excellent college preparatory program in which she participated. She recalled, “College was taken for granted just like grade school and I was expected to achieve this at a minimum and then get an advanced degree of some type.” Helene and her Black college-bound peers took these aspirations seriously. After her high school graduation she entered a university in East City in the fall of 1964.

Elementary and secondary teachers saw Allison and Helene, the daughters of college-educated parents, as attractive candidates for college. On the other hand, Mrs. Washington and Mr. and Mrs. Taylor knew that education was important, but they had less control over neighborhood schools, were limited in the financial support they could provide their daughters, and knew little about the world of higher education. These limitations meant that the working-class daughters felt pressured to have excellent grades and had to assume much of the responsibility for navigating the world of higher education to make decisions about colleges themselves. While the strategies were different, both working- and middle-class parents prepared young people to enter a more integrated world. Changes within predominantly White higher educational institutions made the entrance of Black students possible, but the paths to these institutions were complex. Black families in the United States had to challenge many biased institutions that made it difficult for their children to secure the secondary schooling essential for college.

It is important to look at the Black students of the 1960s who were ready for admission to predominantly White colleges and universities. College attendance is based on solid secondary educational preparation. We see evidence of extraordinary efforts in the lives of the women in this study, because in the mid-1960s there were few affirmative action or remedial programs in colleges to compensate for the effects of institutional racism in high schools. Colleges made new efforts to attract minority students, but they were seeking Black and other students of color who met all the regular requirements for admission. Therefore social class background, regional educational options, and family composition were key factors in how these fifty-six Black women gained access to majority White colleges in the era of integration.

Racial Transformations

Race relations in the United States, and thus the opportunities for African Americans and other people of color, changed dramatically over the twentieth century. Geographic mobility in response to regional and national shifts created new opportunities as well as new challenges. “The severe labor depression in the South in 1914 and 1915 sent wages down to 75 cents per day and less. The damage of the boll weevil to cotton crops in 1915 and 1916 discouraged many who were dependent on cotton for their subsistence. Floods in the summer of 1915 left thousands of blacks destitute and homeless and ready to accept almost anything in preference to the uncertainty of life in the South” (Franklin and Moss 1994, p. 340). As these factors pushed Black people out of the South, stories in the Black press and labor agents’ promises of new jobs pulled them north. Legal restrictions on European immigration meant industrial employers were looking internally for new workers (Takaki 1993). In their new region, Black Americans entered manufacturing and service industries, found new educational opportunities, and participated in local and national politics (McAdam 1982; Pohlmann 1990). The Black population's involvement in World War I also meant more interaction with mainstream institutions. While there were many setbacks during the Depression, there were also some gains. Scholars acknowledge that the New Deal did much to reinforce patterns of racial segregation (Quadagno 1994), but it also provided a forum for challenging the established order.

Within the South, the Black population also shifted. More African Americans moved into urban areas and enjoyed greater occupational diversity, enabling many to increase their earnings. In urban areas, Black Americans experienced greater freedom to establish and expand their own social organizations, especially churches, schools, and civic groups (McAdam 1982; Marks 1989; Morris 1984). These political and economic gains provided the backdrop for additional challenges to the racial hierarchies of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.

The protracted struggle for full equality in this country and the many published testimonials by middle-class African Americans about continued racism up to the present time makes it difficult for many to appreciate the measure of change brought about in the post–World War II era and through the 1950s and 1960s (Carter 1991; Cose 1993; Gates 1994; Nelson 1993; Parker 1997; Williams 1991). There were expanding opportunities in those years as Black Americans, especia...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Too Much to Ask
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• CHAPTER 1 : THE WOMEN AND THE ERA
• CHAPTER 2 : FAMILY SOCIAL CLASS BACKGROUND
• CHAPTER 3 : WHAT MONEY CAN BUY
• CHAPTER 4 : THE TIES THAT BIND
• CHAPTER 5 : PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS
• CHAPTER 6 : ELITE HIGH SCHOOLS
• CHAPTER 7 : ADULT-SPONSORED AND CHILD-SECURED MOBILITY
• CHAPTER 8 : COLLEGE
• CHAPTER 9 : SURVIVAL STRATEGIES IN COLLEGE
• CHAPTER 10 : STRUGGLING TO BUILD A SATISFYING LIFE IN A RACIST SOCIETY
• EPILOGUE
• NOTES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
• INDEX