Introduction

Abstract

In search of greater educational, employment, social, political, and cultural opportunities, many African American women migrated to Washington with formerly unimaginable aspirations and expectations for themselves. Colored No More establishes this search as formative to a New Negro ethos.The introductory chapter defines “New Negro” and constructs a gender-specific understanding of this historical era and identity, while introducing Washington as both a unique and a representative site for the emergence of New Negro womanhood. Challenging the temporal primacy on the Interwar period in New Negro studies, the introduction asserts the importance of examining the lives of African American women to revisit how we conceptualize the “New Negro.” This chapter also deconstructs our understanding of “colored” as simply a racial marker- gender mattered in how Blackness was experienced during the New Negro era. In search of greater educational, employment, social, political, and cultural opportunities, many African American women migrated to Washington with formerly unimaginable aspirations and expectations for themselves.