It is safe to say that social workers are needed across the United States. They also may be needed across the country. A question that some people may have is what are social workers ? What does their job consist of ? Social workers are skilled individuals who help people solve and deal with problems in their everyday lives. These problems may range from within families, drug addiction, child abuse/neglect, and also tend to people with health issues. Social workers help keep society together by lessening problems within families and individuals. Within this paper you will be exposed to pioneers who have influenced social workers today.
Introduction of pioneer
There are numerous amounts of social workers who have paved the way for social workers today. People like Harry Hopkins, Jane Adams, and marry Richmond give other social workers a platform to base their work from. The pioneer that was chosen is an author, educator, and organizer. George’s Edmund Haynes was not only a religious leader, but also a social scientist and a major influence in social work education for African Americans. Born in the late 1800s George was the eldest of his 2 siblings.
Birthed by Mattie Haynes and fathered by Louis Haynes. His parents both were hard workers with his father being a day laborer and mother being a domestic worker living in Pine Bluff Arkansas. Being born close to the 1900s George was exposed to the segregated and very well unequal school systems. This mistreatment motivated his parents to move to Hot Springs Arkansas. This move was executed to peruse greater education opportunities for the children of Louis and Mattie Haynes.
Haynes family life was really similar to the other African American families around that time. With his father receiving inadequate earnings at his job, and his mother doing domestic work they made enough just to get by in life. While he was young Haynes father died which left his mother and other siblings. Haynes mother could be credited for the success he had growing up in education. When his father passed she pushed education to her children, making an example to them that growing up in the era the were in, brain power was the key to moving up in society.
Around the age of thirteen , Haynes was exposed to the discussions concerning the problems affecting African Americans. This took place at least the Chicago world’s fair, which was organized to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus arrival in the “new world” in 1492 ironically African Americans have been oppressed for those 400 years. At this fair George first heard about the “Negro problem”. Along with this problem, solutions were discussed, including possibilities of emigrating to Africa.
In the early 1900s , Haynes was able to began his career by starting at a YMCA. It was here where Haynes worked with the African American youth. With the support of the YMCA, Hanes was able to tour the south and visited a handful of African American colleges to aid in raising the standard of African Americans education. In this period of time Haynes would later meet his soon to be wife Elizabeth Ross. Whom was also interested and engaged in similar work with African American women.
Education
Education for Haynes was tough in the beginning. A class for Haynes consisted of all age ranges. Ultimately this means he was in a class room with some adults and young children all learning the same material. This would become an insult to Haynes. He felt he deserved better and would eventually pursue a better education. With the experience Haynes had at the worlds fair, it motivated him to peruse a higher education. With the support from his mother he was able to enroll in the agriculture and mechanical college for negros in Normal, Alabama. After his freshman year he would later transfer to Fisk university in Nashville Tennessee. He would go on to earn his B.A degree in 1903. With this success Haynes was admitted to Yale graduate school where he achieved his M.A. In 1904.
While Haynes worked at the YMCA, he enrolled at the university of Chicago in the summers of 1906 and 1907. He then would take a monumental step and moved to New York and attended the New York school of philanthropy. Which would later be called the New York school of social work of Columbia university. Haynes would be the first African American to graduate from this college in 1910. Two years later he would become the first African American to earn a PH.D. In economics from Columbia.
Political affiliations
As previously stated Haynes learned about the migration of African Americans at a young age. The migration would later become an important topic for this social scientist. Haynes would become apart of various organizations that would aim to ease the transition of the southern individuals to the cities. These organizations included the association for the protection of colored women, the committee for improving the industrial conditions of the African Americans of New York, and the committee on urban conditions among African Americans
In 1910 Haynes would work with white reformer , Ruth Standish Baldwin. Together they would bring these three organizations together into the national league on urban conditions or the national urban league. Haynes would then become the first executive secretary of the NUL. He would continue to hold this position for the following six years. Strategically Haynes would use his work with black migrants as the basis for his 1912 Columbia university dissertation. “The Negro at work in New York” which later would be published by the Columbia university press with the same title.
According to Columbia University haynes work was focused on specifically affected African Americans, but he contends that those causes were secondary. For example, he examines the effect of Jim Crow legislation. Haynes argues that restrictions on the “rights and privileges of persons of color in Southern communities leads some of them to migrate North.” African Americans believed the North offered greater liberty, however Haynes asserts that blacks “will be affected in a manner similar to that of the Southern white population.”Haynes’s research convinced him that while the effect of anti-black racism was a factor for many individuals, economic incentive was the most influential determinant for migration among whites and blacks alike
Contributions to social work .
Haynes would choose 4 assembly districts that would represent a fourth of manhattans black population. He would work hard for a year to gather enough material to discuss the wage earning element for the African American community. He would then use tables and neighborhoods diagrams to prove the separation of African Americans from basic societal needs and functions. In this era the Jim Crow laws weren’t enforced. Jim Crow was a derogatory term towards African Americans with the purpose to cause an emotional liability within the black community. Jim Crow laws consisted of the segregation of almost any public need. These consisted of but not limited to schools, bathrooms, and water fountains.
Haynes was dedicated to his work. He focused on the social injustice against African Americans. He would next focus on the issues related to the great migration within the black community. He helps in the fight against the daily racism that people of color deal with on a daily basis. Not only is he helping against the constant racism that occurs, but he also trains other individuals with the same thriving passion he has to erase the racist mentality. By Haynes showing his community that they are not alone in the fight created hope inside the communities. It showed the younger generations that it does not matter who you are, you can stand up to anything and anyone and make a change. Hope is something that the African migrants from the south lacked.
Conclusion
George Edmund Haynes was a social pioneer that did outstanding work. Not only did he come from a poverty stricken area. He also established a name for himself despite the statistics being against him. I’m a time where a black man could not even share the same bathroom as a Caucasian man. It is in these times where you find who serves Christ. Haynes is one of those individuals. Growing up he saw the injustice that was occurring to his family and chose to make a difference. With his remarkable educational background, political affiliations, and his dedication for the equality of all human beings. He taught people how to his techniques and methods in hopes of more individuals becoming leaders in the black community. Haynes refused to let the stereotype of a black man to keep him away from his education and dreams.
In today’s society you can see some of the effects of Haynes work in play he did not accept the social change or the political domination of the superior race at that time. He really had a passion for serving his community. After his dissertation he would later go back and teach at his alma mater. It is through him that african Americans have some of the opportunities they have today. This is all because of the life of George Edmund Haynes