African-American activism
The prospect of opportunities in the North prompted Black women to create a community and improve their own conditions. Illinoisians were passionate about bettering the conditions of women. Black women’s clubs were popular in Illinois with over 150 in Chicago alone from 1900-1940. Many of these clubs focused on social issues, such as suffrage.
Black women reformers were concerned with the respectability of the race and created programs that focused on literature, the arts, and civic values. African American women like their white counterparts were also concerned with suffrage. Activists like Ida B.Wells were organizing among Black women discussing the injustices within the community such as financial disparities and institutional racism.