Back History: day 11 - We can do it!

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https://blackmattersus.com/34074-black-history-detroit-housewives-league/

The 3rd Sunday in May is a special day in Black history when we celebrate the founder of the Detroit Housewives League, Fannie Peck.

“It was an attempt by African-American women to essentially try to expand the job market for all African Americans in Detroit by boosting the businesses, Black-owned businesses, and pressuring white-owned businesses to hire African American workers,” Victoria Wolcott, the author of Remaking Respectability: African-American Women in Interwar Detroit said.

Hear @VWidgeon discuss the Detroit Housewives League, 1930s community-based response to unemployment, discriminationhttps://t.co/JaHpKmw5Ye

— Todd Michney (@ToddMichney) May 27, 2017

In the beginning of the twentieth century, African-Americans arrived at Detroit’s Michigan Central Station in huge numbers. It was a part of the Great Migration of Blacks who escaped the South in search of improved economic and political conditions in the urban North. The most significant of these migrants have been the male industrial workers who found jobs in city car production. African-American women have largely been absent from usual stories concerning the Great Migration because they didn’t work at the plants and thus go unnoticed. telling the stories of these women, Victoria Wolcott reveals their vital role in shaping life in interwar Detroit.

“Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work: 1932 Housewives’ League of Detroithttps://t.co/vXQh2Z4eEp@NAACP @Essence

— Jerome Reide (@JeromeReide) March 29, 2017

In 1930s Black women couldn’t afford to stay at home and wait for their husbands. Too many businesses would sell goods and services to Black people but wouldn’t hire them. So in 1930 Detroit women led by Fannie Peck formed a group called the “Detroit Housewives’ League.” It educated women on their buying power and encouraged them to only shop at African-American owned businesses. The group was also initiating big protests and boycotts.

In 1935 they set a huge packing warehouse on fire protesting against high prices, and later joined thousands of Chicago housewives in a march that shut down the city’s entire meat industry.

Black Meatpackers: The Detroit Housewives’ League took on the meat packing industry itself. In 1935, they burned a huge packinghouse. pic.twitter.com/83c8pWaS1M

— The Gist Of Freedom (@Gistoffreedom) December 17, 2016

The initiative became popular and similar groups started to appear all across the country as local chapters a National Housewives’ League of America.

Over the years the Detroit group helped to create over 70,000 jobs for Blacks, both men and women and started to patronize the White businesses that employed African-Americans.

“Real Detroit Housewives League" 9,000+ members: Shut The Meat Industry Down in 1935! | Created 70,000 jobs for Blacks. pic.twitter.com/NisNlr3Yxf

— The Gist Of Freedom (@Gistoffreedom) July 9, 2016

However, the 3rd Sunday in May was a special day in Black history, it was set aside to celebrate the founder of the organization Fannie Peck.