Ardent citizens

African American Elks and the fight for equal employment opportunities

Bibliographic Data

ID2146291
AuthorsVenus Green (corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume36
Issue2
Pages353-371
Publication date2013-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthnic and Racial Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-9870 • E-ISSN: 1466-4356
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01419870.2012.676199
OpenAlexW1981195737
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited16

The Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World (IBPOEW), an African American fraternal order established in 1897, is, like other fraternal groups, a benevolent association. However, black Elks express a large part of their fraternalism in political agitation. Routinely viewed merely as mutual aid societies, black fraternal organizations are not conceptualized as groups of labour activists. By examining the Elks' use of citizenship rights in the fight to expand employment opportunities, this article demonstrates that the IBPOEW, with its extraordinary departmental structure, consistently fought for African Americans' rights as workers. It suggests that African American fraternal organizations offer an additional domain in which we can find black workers engaged in labour struggles. Therefore, the article broadens labour studies historiography to include an analysis of black fraternal organizations as sites where workers develop solidarity and participate in labour activism with and without labour unions

African american · Citizenship · Criminology · Economics · Historiography · Order (exchange · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Solidarity · American History and Culture · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Labor Movements and Unions · Law · Race, History, and American Society

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