Author presents on Black women’s history

As the celebration of Black History Month continues at CSB+SJU, the history department and Multicultural Student Services hosted Crystal Moten on Feb. 20 for her presentation “Continually Working: Black Women’s Economic Activism in Postwar Milwaukee.”

Moten is an author, museum curator and historian with her masters and PhD in history and African American studies. Her new book, titled “Continually Working: Black Women, Community Intellectualism and Economic Justice in Postwar Milwaukee,” is the culmination of research on Black women’s activism in Milwaukee and was heavily featured in her keynote speech. Moten was introduced by Shannon Smith, a history professor at CSB+SJU, who said understanding Black history is vital to historical literacy in the United States.

“As a historian of the United States, I know that it is impossible to tell a complete history of this country without centering African American voices and experiences,” Smith said. “The more I learned, the more I felt empowered that everyone has a role to play in telling the truth and striving for justice.”

Moten opened her speech with an explanation of why she wrote her book, citing the Black working women in her life who shaped her childhood and career, especially her female relatives, her pastor at church growing up and her sixth-grade teacher who encouraged her to learn about Black history.

“These experiences, at home, at church, at school, as well as the neighborhood library, put in place a firm foundation, one that would be tested as I began my formal pursuit of history,” she said.

Moten said her passion for Black history began taking shape into a future career as she read books in her undergrad history classes focusing on the underrepresented Black women in history. During her graduate school experience, Moten said she wanted to find more examples in historical archives of these women, assuming it would be hard to find, since she hadn’t previously encountered stories of their work.

“I entered the archives expecting to have to dig and dig to find traces of Black women’s activism,” she said. “What I encountered was the exact opposite. In every collection I explored, I tripped and stumbled over Black women’s work…these women, their efforts and their work, had been intentionally excised, erased, deleted, discarded and analyzed out of history.”

Moten said her book is a combination of her own personal history and the history of these activist women, in order to make their stories more accessible. The historical part of her speech focused on three women and their work with the Milwaukee Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) in the mid 1900s. The three women highlighted in this specific portion of her book, Moten said, were Bernice Copeland Lindsay, Nana Ree Baker and Jean Hopkins. They were the first Black women hired at the Milwaukee YWCA and helped open and operate an additional center to help support other young Black women in their communities. Moten said they fought back when the YWCA would not pay them their worth after suddenly closing their additional center and went on to continue their activist work after leaving the organization.

“Although Black working women were marginalized by a staggeringly powerful system, they fought bravely and creatively with strategies that still resonate today,” she said.

Charis Birkholz, CSB sophomore and International Student Mentor with MSS, said she was excited to attend Moten’s speech because of how it related to Black women’s role in economic issues and expressed hope that student engagement with Black History Month events will broaden perspectives.

“I hope it gives people more insights and [teaches them] how to be empathetic,” she said. “With all the events that are going on with Black History Month, you really need people to be aware of these issues…and actually take something away from it.”

Martha Dougherty, CSB sophomore, said the biggest takeaway she got from Moten’s speech was the understanding of Moten’s knowledge and personal connection to her work, as well as the relationship the historical subject has with society today.

“I really enjoyed when she talked about how her life intertwined with the research she did. She clearly put love and time and commitment into all her research,” she said. “[Moten] also said at the beginning that those systems that were in place in the past have a direct impact on people’s lives today, and they still do.”

Moten’s book will be releasing from Vanderbilt University Press in March of this year. She said in her book she strives to give these women the visibility in history that their activism warrants.

“Today, during this Black History Month, and all year long, I amplify the lessons Black women activists teach us. I stand with them past and present, honoring their commitment, dedication and sacrifice,” she said. “For as long as injustice and inequality persist, Black working women will be continually working.”