The Farmers’ Improvement Society and the Women’s Barnyard Auxiliary of Texas

Abstract

Historians have brought attention to African-American women’s contributions to planning including housing and social service program delivery. This article builds upon that scholarship by adding the work of the Farmers’ Improvement Society and its Women’s Barnyard Auxiliary, both of which were Progressive-era African American mutual aid groups. This article explores the potential importance of these organizations to planning practice and scholarship; sheds light on the unique approach to planning employed by poor and rural people in mutual aid groups; and challenges popular assumptions about similar Progressive Era, “Uplift Movement” groups.