“Tryin' to Make Ends Meet”

Prior to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, race, class, gender, and work functioned in unique ways to protect white supremacy and the Southern way of life. Due to race and class domination, black women have occupied a structural position subordinate to white women in society. They have had less access to deference, power, and authority. As Brook Farm women’s experiences shows, African American women, even on farms in the countryside of the rural, segregated South, found ways to circumvent race, class, and gender oppression to feel empowered. Brooks Farm initially existed as a plantation until the 1940s, when P. H. Brooks sold the land to families in Brooks Farm, thereby helping these former plantation workers—day laborers, sharecroppers, tenants, and renters—achieve their goals of self-management, self-sufficiency, preservation, and landownership. Women in Brooks Farm performed many of the traditional roles that the majority of farm women inherited from the family and community.