"Almost a Partnership": African-Americans, Segregation, and the Young Men's Christian Association

Authors

Susan Kerr Chandler, University of Nevada, Reno

Abstract

On January 1, 1913, the Colored Men's Department of the Young Men's Christian Association gathered in Washington, D.C., at the Twelfth Street "Y". The six African American International Secretaries made a practice of coming together on this holiday, finding in the New Year a quiet time to talk among themselves. Dr. Jesse E. Moorland, the Department's senior secretary, was scheduled to give "Remarks," as usual, and the secretaries looked forward to them-particularly this year, which, they knew, held great opportunity for their work. The Twelfth Street Y.M.C.A.-the "Colored Branch"-itself bore witness to the measured sense of hope abroad in African American communities during the second decade of the twentieth century. The $120,000 building had been dedicated before a large assembly on Thanksgiving Day in 1908 by no less personage than President Theodore Roosevelt himself.

Recommended Citation

Chandler, Susan Kerr (1994) ""Almost a Partnership": African-Americans, Segregation, and the Young Men's Christian Association," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 21: Iss. 1, Article 9.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.2111
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol21/iss1/9