Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/678

664 was a disposition on the part of the convention to call for the opinions of various members on interesting questions. So there was a great deal of impromptu speaking, and this speaking was both wise and witty—often more interesting than the prepared speeches, although there was not a single dull speech, either prepared or unprepared. It is unnecessary to say that the singing was sweet, for it is generally admitted that the negro can sing.

Looking at and listening to these women, it was almost impossible to realize that they were the daughters and grand-daughters of those who, in the language of one of the youngest of the speakers, "sang lullabies with heavy hearts to sleeping babes, not knowing at what moment the auction block might come between them and those whom they loved."

When it was announced that there was to be a meeting of colored women's clubs in Detroit, it was asked: "Why do colored women have clubs? Is it because they have really decided that they are conducive to their best development, or are they mere aping of white women's clubs?" To answer this question we must ask: "Why do white women have clubs? From what needs do these clubs arise, and what are they accomplishing?"

White women have clubs primarily because they are social beings, and as social beings they find that a proper development is impossible apart from society. Clearness of thought, breadth of view, freedom from prejudice, sustained energy and enthusiasm, self-control, and the ability to work together as "superiors, inferiors, or equals"—these are some of the things which the larger social life of the club tends to foster. Some work is done which is valuable for its own sake. Some knowledge is acquired; some philanthropic work is accomplished; some attempts are made at solving political and social problems.

Colored women have formed clubs similar to white women's clubs, because, having the same human nature as white women, they have felt the same needs, and they have accepted the partial remedy for these needs which white women have pointed out as good, in so far as it goes.