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Black Club Women's Purposes For Establishing Kindergartens In The Progressive Era, 1890-1910, Jean Marie Robbins

Dissertations

Little literature exists that examines black people's efforts to educate their young children during the Progressive Era. It was the period in which early childhood education in the form of kindergarten began to flourish in the United States and around the world. Even in the abundance of literature about kindergarten's successes and its potential to transform impoverished families, the overwhelmingly poor black population remained invisible to the great majority of researchers writing about the progress of that movement.

Yet primary historical documents, such as the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACW) records, manuscripts, and Progressive Era newspapers, reveal that …