Jack and Jill (organization)

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Jack and Jill of America was formed during the Great Depression and grew out of the community work of upper-class African American women in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, who wanted their children to have cultural opportunities, develop leadership skills, and form social networks even in the midst of segregation. Jack and Jill publishes a national journal and has 187 local chapters in the United states. ^[1]

[edit] References

^ Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience By Anthony Appiah, Kwame Anthony Appiah, Henry Louis Gates Page 455

Jack and Jill is known amongst many black circles to be an organization of "well-off" black families. Mentioned in Lawernce Otis Grahams book "Our Kind of People". A book published that talks about the black upper class and dedicated an entire chapter to Jack and Jill. The youth that are involved take part in ski trips, pool parties, cotillions, holiday soriees, and conferences. Mothers have to be invited into the group, much like memberships into country clubs. Members are usually profesional women who are doctors, lawyers, business women, or are married to individuals who well off. Kids who graduate out of the program are granted legacy status and automatically join when they have kids.