{"product_id":"better-living-by-their-own-bootstraps-black-womens-activism-in-rural-arkansas-1914-1965-9781682261675","title":"Better Living by Their Own Bootstraps: Black Women's Activism in Rural Arkansas, 1914-1965","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe first major study to consider Black women's activism in rural Arkansas, \u003ci\u003eBetter Living by Their Own Bootstraps\u003c\/i\u003e foregrounds activists' quest to improve Black communities through language and foodways as well as politics and community organizing. In reexamining these efforts, Cherisse Jones-Branch lifts many important figures out of obscurity, positioning them squarely within Arkansas's agrarian history.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Black women activists highlighted here include home demonstration agents employed by the Arkansas Agricultural Cooperative Extension Service and Jeanes Supervising Industrial Teachers, all of whom possessed an acute understanding of the difficulties that African Americans faced in rural spaces. Examining these activists through a historical lens, Jones-Branch reveals how educated, middle-class Black women worked with their less-educated rural sisters to create all-female spaces where they confronted economic, educational, public health, political, and theological concerns free from white regulation and interference.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eCentered on the period between 1914 and 1965, \u003ci\u003eBetter Living by Their Own Bootstraps\u003c\/i\u003e brings long-overdue attention to an important chapter in Arkansas history, spotlighting a group of Black women activists who uplifted their communities while subverting the formidable structures of white supremacy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCherisse Jones-Branch is the James and Wanda Lee Vaughn Endowed Professor of History at Arkansas State University, where she is dean of the graduate school. She is the author of \u003ci\u003eCrossing the Line: Women and Interracial Activism in South Carolina during and after World War II\u003c\/i\u003e and coeditor of \u003ci\u003eArkansas Women: Their Lives and Times.\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Arkansas Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50557529817362,"sku":"9781682261675","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8d00917a-7c90-4dad-890e-5fbdc4a3eceb.jpg?v=1731785534","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/better-living-by-their-own-bootstraps-black-womens-activism-in-rural-arkansas-1914-1965-9781682261675","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}