The Grand Rapids Study Club's Founding Motto In Its Time
Early African American women in Grand Rapids formed several literary and social clubs during the Progressive Era, starting with the Married Ladies Nineteenth Century Club. The Grand Rapids Study Club was one of five women's organizations that sponsored the 1907 meeting of the Michigan Association of Colored Women's Clubs in turn-of-the-century Grand Rapids. Founded in 1904, the Grand Rapids Study Club (GRSC) is the only club still active today. And it retains its original motto, "rowing not drifting." Thinking about the motto and the period in which the GRSC was formed, I became curious. I was struck because the women who founded the club felt it necessary not only to include action, or movement, in the club motto, but they considered the result of not rowing, of drifting. With "rowing," the Study Club indicated that they were actively using tools, as rowers use oars, to propel themselves forward through both rough and calm seas. Also, in saying that they were "not drifting," these women wanted to clarify that they were opposed to just moving with the current, just letting it take them to unknown and undesirable places. Now that was brave!
Rowing is identified as the process of propelling a boat using a fixed oar as a lever.
Rowing can be competitive and is recognized as both an individual and a team sport.
The goal of rowing competitions is to be the first individual or team to reach the finish line.
Rowers tend to be great athletes, as the sport requires a large amount of mental and physical strength with high perseverance and stamina levels.
When working with a team, rowers have to work together because synchronization and good communication are essential.
Rowers not only control where a boat goes; they also control the speed. It is unlikely to drift. Drifting is the act of being slowly carried by air or water. Rowers cannot control the environment, but they can manage it if they work together.
The GRSC's use of its motto was thoughtful and especially important for its time. With the motto, the group made a statement that they wanted to control their destiny and be ready to take on those who might push against them.
Like rowers, the ladies of the GRSC may have been able to control some things. However, they could not control the environment.
Propelling through rough waters can make rowing more difficult, and the environment in the United States in 1904 made it difficult for African American women to have public presence, voice, and respect. Jim Crow Laws were a product of the South, but they crept northward, even to Grand Rapids. African Americans living here then were subjected to overt racial discrimination, oppression, and injustices. Many southern Blacks migrated to the North to escape lynching and brutality in the South only to encounter poverty and other oppressions here.
The Grand Rapid Study Club and some of the other colored women's clubs here acted as a moral compass for those migrating to Grand Rapids. Oh, but they were so much more than that. They were rowers.
Originally called the Grand Rapids Study "Class," the club's brilliant and ambitious women were not only women of high moral standards; they were also civically engaged and politically involved. Many of their later members ran for public office. In 1951, two Study Club members, Ethel Coe, and Harriett Woods Hill became the first two African American women to run for public office in Grand Rapids. Club members were benevolent and patriotic. They had fundraisers to support their religious organizations and support soldiers in both World Wars I and II.
Many of them were educated and had careers or businesses.
Hazel Grant was a member who trained as a stenographer and became the first African American woman to work in the Grand Rapids City Clerk's office. Sarah Glover, also a member, became a nurse. All of the women were social and community activists.
Today, the Study Club members include a wide array of brilliant, benevolent, and brave women who still prefer rowing to drifting. They meet regularly and still do trailblazing work.
Stay tuned next week, when we will take a look at current members and how they continue to live up to the motto, "Rowing not drifting." Sophia Brewer (M.L.I.S.) is Collection Development and Serials Librarian, Grand Rapids Community College.
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