{"id":189,"date":"2018-12-20T21:27:40","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T21:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/pathwaytodiversity\/?p=189"},"modified":"2021-01-01T18:41:01","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T18:41:01","slug":"self-help-culture-and-the-ideal-womans-club-of-winter-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/pathwaytodiversity\/2018\/12\/20\/self-help-culture-and-the-ideal-womans-club-of-winter-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-Help Culture and the Ideal Woman\u2019s Club of Winter Park"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The DePugh Nursing Home of Winter Park, 1971<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the first half of the 20th<\/sup> century the doctrine of \u201cseparate but equal,\u201d supported by the landmark 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson<\/em> case, constitutionally allowed for the separation of races in public places as long as facilities remained equal. (1) Winter Park adhered to this doctrine, as did most other southern towns in the U.S., and its implementation unduly disadvantaged black Winter Park residents living \u201cacross the tracks\u201d on the westside of town. Arguably, this practice led to the neglect and defunding of westside facilities by the 1930s when \u201cJim Crow laws, growing anti-racial sentiment, and economic downswings effectively drained the one proud black community\u201d of Hannibal Square. (2) The Ideal Woman\u2019s Club was a local, grassroots, female-led organization focused on solving some of these entrenched social and economic problems for the overall the betterment of the westside and its residents. Founded by Mrs. Marry Lee DePugh in 1937, the Ideal Woman\u2019s Club was \u201can organization to meet the needs of the black people of the community\u201d. (3)\u00a0 The organization was highly successful in many ways over the years and is still active in Winter Park today. (4)<\/p>\n

Among the many achievements of the Ideal Woman\u2019s Club was the establishment of the DePugh Nursing Home in 1956, which was \u201cdedicated exclusively to the care of the members of the Negro community.\u201d(4)\u00a0 The DePugh Nursing Home (also still in existence) received recognition from both white and black Winter Park residents upon its founding, and was the result of an amazing community fundraising effort \u2013 over $30,000 were raised in just a few short years. (5) It is clear that the efforts of the Ideal Women\u2019s Club allowed black women in Winter Park to develop critical funding channels, cultivate philanthropic relationships with local elites, and grow their social influence in a powerful and meaningful way. This strategy has been termed \u201cself-help culture,\u201d a phenomenon that promoted the advancement of African Americans through internal community initiatives led by African Americans themselves rather than white elites. (6) However, at least in the case of the DePugh Nursing Center, the Ideal Woman\u2019s Club was not a solo African American organization acting on its own but rather a dynamic group actively engaged in collaboration with other local white and black organizations, including the Winter Park Woman\u2019s Club, the Rollins Race Relations Committee, the Interracial Committee of Winter Park, The Benevolent Club, as well as groups associated with \u201cthe Negros of Maitland, Altamonte, and Eatonville.\u201d (7)<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Leonard W. Levy, and Harlan B. Philips, \u201cThe Robert\u2019s Case: Source of the \u2018Separate but Equal\u2019 Doctrine,\u201d The American Historical Review 56:3 (1951): 518.<\/li>\n
  2. Kimberley Tomlinson Mould, \u201cMary Lee DePugh: an Evanston Influence in Winter Park, Florida,\u201d Shorefront<\/em> 2:2 (2001). In folder titled, \u201cIdeal Women\u2019s Club.\u201d Archives and Special Collections, Olin Library, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida.<\/li>\n
  3. P Herald on the Ideal Woman\u2019s Club, 1950. Folder titled \u201cIdeal Woman\u2019s Club.\u201d Archives and Special Collections, Olin Library, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida.<\/li>\n
  4. Bruce Dudley, \u201cRich History of Mary Lee DePugh Nursing Home,\u201d February 2, 1967. Folder titled \u201cDePugh Nursing Home.\u201d Archives and Special Collections, Olin Library, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida.<\/li>\n
  5. Julian Chambliss, \u201cThe Ideal Women\u2019s Club,\u201d Rollins College, accessed December 1, 2018, https:\/\/myweb.rollins.edu\/jchambliss\/Historic_Winter_Park\/Historic_Winter_Park\/The_Ideal_Womens_Club.html<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. James D. Anderson, The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988), 5-7.<\/li>\n
  7. Hannibal Square Associates, \u201cTo the People of Our Community,\u201d May 6, 1949. Folder titled \u201cDePugh Nursing Home.\u201d Archives and Special Collections, Olin Library, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    —\u00a0Paulina Martinez Garcia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In the first half of the 20th century the doctrine of \u201cseparate but equal,\u201d supported by the landmark 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson case, constitutionally allowed for the separation of races in public places as long as facilities remained equal. (1) Winter Park adhered to this doctrine, as did most other southern towns in the U.S.,… Read More Self-Help Culture and the Ideal Woman\u2019s Club of Winter Park<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[21],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/pathwaytodiversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/pathwaytodiversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/pathwaytodiversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/pathwaytodiversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/pathwaytodiversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/pathwaytodiversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/pathwaytodiversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/pathwaytodiversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/pathwaytodiversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/pathwaytodiversity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}