Florence S. Boos
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474433907
- eISBN:
- 9781474465120
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474433907.003.0032
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
In this essay, Florence S. Boos examines the career of Mary Smith, a writer who used the correspondence columns of the Carlisle Journal and other periodicals to write on religious pluralism, women’s ...
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In this essay, Florence S. Boos examines the career of Mary Smith, a writer who used the correspondence columns of the Carlisle Journal and other periodicals to write on religious pluralism, women’s enfranchisement, Liberal party politics, Irish Home Rule, and British imperialism. The extent of her contributions will probably never be fully known since her letters were signed with initials or with pseudonyms such as ‘Burns Redivivus’ or ‘Sigma.’ Anonymity was crucial for a lower-middle-class woman writer who could not vote but yearned to influence public debate. ‘If men knew who the writer was,’ she acknowledged, ‘they would say, “What does a woman know about politics?”’ (p. 510). When adopting various signatures, she shifted her tone and persona accordingly, reserving her most strident voice for the letters she published on Liberal party politics, styling herself as ‘Sigma’ or ‘Z.’ ‘Periodical journalism,’ Boos concludes, ‘provided Smith with the opportunity to explore a range of personae, topics, and rhetorical approaches over several decades, and to influence public opinion in favour of her chosen causes while retaining her cherished mental independence and broadly critical stance’ (p. 513).Less
In this essay, Florence S. Boos examines the career of Mary Smith, a writer who used the correspondence columns of the Carlisle Journal and other periodicals to write on religious pluralism, women’s enfranchisement, Liberal party politics, Irish Home Rule, and British imperialism. The extent of her contributions will probably never be fully known since her letters were signed with initials or with pseudonyms such as ‘Burns Redivivus’ or ‘Sigma.’ Anonymity was crucial for a lower-middle-class woman writer who could not vote but yearned to influence public debate. ‘If men knew who the writer was,’ she acknowledged, ‘they would say, “What does a woman know about politics?”’ (p. 510). When adopting various signatures, she shifted her tone and persona accordingly, reserving her most strident voice for the letters she published on Liberal party politics, styling herself as ‘Sigma’ or ‘Z.’ ‘Periodical journalism,’ Boos concludes, ‘provided Smith with the opportunity to explore a range of personae, topics, and rhetorical approaches over several decades, and to influence public opinion in favour of her chosen causes while retaining her cherished mental independence and broadly critical stance’ (p. 513).
Julia Rabig
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226388311
- eISBN:
- 9780226388458
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226388458.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter explores the history of New Community Corporation, from its roots in a predominantly black Catholic Church with strong lay leadership to its founders' participation in the larger black ...
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This chapter explores the history of New Community Corporation, from its roots in a predominantly black Catholic Church with strong lay leadership to its founders' participation in the larger black freedom movement. Emerging as a self-consciously interracial organization with an emphasis on city-suburban ties, it did not define itself as a black power organization, but emphasized black self-determination nonetheless. The chapter explores NCC’s strategies and the obstacles it faced as members developed affordable housing and established an infant childcare center chain, Babyland, at a time when few existed. NCC’s grew into one of the largest and most successful community development corporations in the country and this chapter considers the reasons for that, including the skills of leaders such as Mary Smith and William Linder, the group’s fraught, but ultimately beneficial, Catholic connections, and the breadth of endeavors. NCC emergence as a major housing provide in the city offers a clear example of how community development corporations acted as “parallel state” in a time of federal retreat from the cities.Less
This chapter explores the history of New Community Corporation, from its roots in a predominantly black Catholic Church with strong lay leadership to its founders' participation in the larger black freedom movement. Emerging as a self-consciously interracial organization with an emphasis on city-suburban ties, it did not define itself as a black power organization, but emphasized black self-determination nonetheless. The chapter explores NCC’s strategies and the obstacles it faced as members developed affordable housing and established an infant childcare center chain, Babyland, at a time when few existed. NCC’s grew into one of the largest and most successful community development corporations in the country and this chapter considers the reasons for that, including the skills of leaders such as Mary Smith and William Linder, the group’s fraught, but ultimately beneficial, Catholic connections, and the breadth of endeavors. NCC emergence as a major housing provide in the city offers a clear example of how community development corporations acted as “parallel state” in a time of federal retreat from the cities.
