Willis Duke Weatherford
Willis Duke Weatherford

Author: Andrew McNeill Canady

Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

Published: 2016-11-25

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 0813168171

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At the turn of the twentieth century, few white, southern leaders would speak out in favor of racial equality for fear of being dismissed as too progressive. Willis Duke Weatherford (1875–1970), however, defied convention as one of the first prominent white southern liberals to dedicate his life to reforming the South's social system, eliminating violence and injustice through education, and opening a dialogue among the affected groups. His energetic efforts led to a rise in progressive action in the region, though at times his own beliefs prevented him from advocating for absolute racial equality. As a result, historians debate Weatherford's legacy: Was he a forward-thinking supporter of human rights or merely a moderate paternalist? In this comprehensive biography, Andrew McNeill Canady offers a reassessment of the influential educator's life and work. Canady surveys Weatherford's work with institutions such as the YMCA, Berea College, and Fisk University and illuminates his many efforts to foster dialogue among southerners of all races about religion, race relations, and Appalachia. He also examines Weatherford's reluctance to challenge Jim Crow laws and the capitalist economy that contributed to the poverty of African Americans and the people of Appalachia, revealing the limitations that southern reformers faced and the often-difficult compromises they were forced to make. During a career that spanned from the Progressive Era to the civil rights movement, Weatherford was involved in virtually every significant southern liberal effort of his time. Past research has focused primarily on Weatherford's early work, but Canady's study is the first to investigate the full trajectory of his life and career. This overdue biography makes a significant contribution to literature on the long civil rights movement and the development of southern liberalism.

Race Reform in the Early Twentieth Century South
Race Reform in the Early Twentieth Century South

Author: Sara T. Combs

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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Willis Duke Weatherford, a liberal pioneer in Southern race reform, argued that the ethics of Christianity obligated Southerners to address the social and economic problems faced by blacks in the early twentieth century. His strategy for improving race relations centred on educating Southerners and promoting economic uplift for blacks. Weatherford advocated race reform through the Young Men's Christian Association, the Southern Sociological Congress, and other voluntary organizations. He published books, taught courses, preached sermons, organized conferences, and raised funds from Northern philanthropists. Through an analysis of his published writings and of his papers archived at the Southern Historical Collection, the present study provides a biographical profile of Weatherford's life and career, examines the development of Weatherford's racial views in the social and political context of his time, describes Weatherford's program of race education developed for college students, and discusses an interracial conference held at the Blue Ridge Assembly in 1917.

Dictionary of North Carolina Biography
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography

Author: William S. Powell

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2000-11-09

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 0807866997

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The most comprehensive state project of its kind, the Dictionary provides information on some 4,000 notable North Carolinians whose accomplishments and occasional misdeeds span four centuries. Much of the bibliographic information found in the six volumes has been compiled for the first time. All of the persons included are deceased. They are native North Carolinians, no matter where they made the contributions for which they are noted, or non-natives whose contributions were made in North Carolina.

Charles S. Johnson
Charles S. Johnson

Author: Patrick J. Gilpin

Publisher: State University of New York Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 0791486060

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The milestones for blacks in twentieth-century America—the Harlem Renaissance, the struggle for equal education, and the civil rights movement—would have been inconceivable without the contributions of one important but often overlooked figure, Charles S. Johnson (1893–1956). This compelling biography demonstrates the scope of his achievements, situates him among other black intellectuals of his time, and casts new light on a pivotal era in the struggle for black equality in America. An impresario of Harlem Renaissance culture, an eminent Chicago-trained sociologist, a pioneering race relations leader, and an educator of the generation that freed itself from legalized segregation, Johnson was a visionary who linked the everyday struggles of blacks with the larger intellectual and political currents of the day. His distinguished career included twenty-eight years at Fisk University, where he established the famed Race Relations Institute and became Fisk's first black president.

The Social Gospel in Black and White
The Social Gospel in Black and White

Author: Ralph E. Luker

Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press

Published: 2000-11-09

Total Pages: 468

ISBN-13: 0807863106

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In a major revision of accepted wisdom, this book, originally published by UNC Press in 1991, demonstrates that American social Christianity played an important role in racial reform during the period between Emancipation and the civil rights movement. As organizations created by the heirs of antislavery sentiment foundered in the mid-1890s, Ralph Luker argues, a new generation of black and white reformers--many of them representatives of American social Christianity--explored a variety of solutions to the problem of racial conflict. Some of them helped to organize the Federal Council of Churches in 1909, while others returned to abolitionist and home missionary strategies in organizing the NAACP in 1910 and the National Urban League in 1911. A half century later, such organizations formed the institutional core of America's civil rights movement. Luker also shows that the black prophets of social Christianity who espoused theological personalism created an influential tradition that eventually produced Martin Luther King Jr.