What a Mighty Power We Can Be: African American Fraternal Groups and the Struggle for Racial Equality

From the nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries, millions of American men and women participated in fraternal associations—self-selecting brotherhoods and sisterhoods that provided aid to members, enacted group rituals, and engaged in community service. Even more than whites did, African Americans embraced this type of association; indeed, fraternal lodges rivaled churches as centers of black community life in cities, towns, and rural areas alike. Using an unprecedented variety of s...