Working the Web During Hard Times: Cracking the Door Open for Young African American Women 1920-1930
Debra J. Stone, Extension Educator, Hennepin County, University of Minnesota Extension Service

Bertha Johnson was a young African American woman with aspirations to be a teacher. She was eighteen, working two jobs and struggling to support her family. Exhausted, she had used up the meager scholarship she received from her church, and could see no way to continue with the education she needed to become a teacher. This case study tells the story of how African American women of the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House lifted as they climbed, making strategic alliances with the white community to support the education of young African American women. These teachers were then qualified when Minneapolis finally integrated its public schools.