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Remembering the Detroit Housewives League, a powerful force in the city after segregation

The University of North Carolina Press, 2001

When looking at 20th century history in Detroit, there’s been a lot written about cars and labor, specifically men who were hired.

There’s been a lot less written about women, and even less about African-American women in Detroit.

Victoria Wolcott is correcting some of that. She’s author of Remaking Respectability: African-American Women in Interwar Detroit.

Wolcott joined Stateside to talk about the Detroit Housewives League, which began back in 1930.

“It was an attempt by African-American women to essentially try to expand the job market for all African Americans in Detroit by boosting the businesses, black-owned businesses, and pressuring white-owned businesses to hire African American workers,” Wolcott said.

Hear the full conversation above.

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