‘Plan Not For The Year, But For The Years’: Fannie Exile Scudder Heck And Southern Baptist Progressivism -- By: Carol Crawford Holcomb

Journal: Journal for Baptist Theology & Ministry
Volume: JBTM 08:2 (Fall 2011)
Article: ‘Plan Not For The Year, But For The Years’: Fannie Exile Scudder Heck And Southern Baptist Progressivism
Author: Carol Crawford Holcomb


‘Plan Not For The Year, But For The Years’:
Fannie Exile Scudder Heck And Southern Baptist Progressivism

Carol Crawford Holcomb

Carol Holcomb is as Professor of Church History and Baptist Studies in the College of Christian Studies at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor. She is Dr. Holcomb’s daughter-in-law.

In his comprehensive volume on southern progressivism, Dewey Grantham examined the southern social reform impulse that swept across the region in the early decades of the twentieth century. He traced the emergence of progressivism to three central issues: a rising industrialism, the emergence of a new professional middle class, and the dramatic political restructuring that had taken place in the South during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. The industrial boom of the New South helped create conditions favorable to progressive sentiments. The first cotton mill in the south was built as early as 1816, but it was not until the 1880s that the textile industry became a force in the southern economy. By the end of the Great Depression the Southeast had eclipsed New England as the world’s leader in the production of cotton cloth.1 Many southerners began to see the rise of industrialism as the panacea for all the South’s ills and became uncritical prophets of the “New South Creed.” Others observed that the shifts in the southern economy and population not only brought benefits but also new social problems in their wake. From 1900 to 1910 a wide range of reform efforts began to coalesce to form what historians call Southern Progressivism. In the following decade southern reformers increasingly identified their efforts with the national agenda, and many became crucial players in Woodrow Wilson’s bid for the presidency.2

These southern progressives, critical of the status quo, challenged the traditionalists who resisted government interference in local affairs and advocated for social legislation, touting the

values of efficiency, democracy, social justice, professionalism, and data gathering. Progressives like Walter Hines Page worked tirelessly for reforms in education, health, agriculture, and the railroads. Edgar Gardner Murphy joined Page in the fight for graded public schools, and together they spearheaded the battle against child labor. Belle H. Bennett, Mary Helm, Estelle Haskins, Lilly Hardy Hammond and other Methodist women addressed immigration issues and industrial problems, and worked to improve race relations. George W. Cable and Robert T. Hill battled the convict lease system, and Seaman A. Knapp revolutionized agriculture with his ...

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