Mecklenburg County Extension Homemakers Association, Inc. records

Home demonstration activities began in North Carolina as early as 1911 with the establishment of the first “tomato club” in Guilford County. Within a few years, the US Congress passed the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 for the establishment of the Agricultural and Home Economics Extension Service. The purpose of this act was to “aid in diffusing among the people of the U.S. useful and practical information on subjects relating to agriculture and home economics and to encourage the application of the same to those not resident in said colleges.” (see Lorna Langley’s “History and Philosophy of Extension, Box 3:38) The Cooperative Agricultural Extension Service that emerged was a collaborative effort between the US Department of Agriculture, land-grant universities, and state and local governments. As “collaborators” (later called “demonstration agents” and still later known as extension agents”) began working, they found it necessary to teach groups of homemakers, rather than individuals, in order to teach effectively. Teaching individuals took too much time and involved too much travel. At first, collaborators traveled by train and taught their lessons in unused railroad box cars. The purpose of the Extension Homemakers Association was to provide education and training useful to homemakers in rural and agricultural areas at a time when electricity in rural areas was rare, paved roads were few, sanitation conditions were primitive, and the cost of groceries was relatively high. Economizing in all aspects of homemaking was very important to farm families that lived on a modest income. EHA also provided information on nearly every aspect of domestic life, including food preservation, child-rearing, good citizenship, making clothing, home decorating, and more. In addition, the association provided a means of social networking between farm women who lived far from their closest neighbors.

Ultimately, the EHA provided assistance and instruction to rural homemakers, in order for them to develop a higher standard of living. The North Carolina Federation of Home Demonstration Clubs first organized in 1920 as a private entity affiliated with the state Cooperative Extension Service. This was an organization that homemakers could join, and they learned about home economics through this organization. The name of this group was changed in 1958 to the North Carolina Organization of Home Demonstration Clubs. A similar organization, the State Council of Home Demonstration Clubs of North Carolina, was organized in 1940. In 1966 these two groups merged to become the North Carolina Extension Homemaker Association, and was incorporated in 1974. The name changed again in 1999 to the North Carolina Extension & Community Association.

Over the years, the demography of North Carolina changed from primarily rural and agricultural to mostly urban and suburban. Along with this shift came a profusion of technological changes that made homemaking less labor-intensive and more convenient. Moreover, cultural habits of wives keeping house changed as a growing number of women entered the workplace outside of the home. With the advance of time, membership declined and chapters gradually folded one by one. The Mecklenburg County Extension and Community Association held its last meeting in 2008. The earliest existing records of the Mecklenburg County Extension Homemakers Association are minutes of meetings, dated 1925. According to their constitutions and bylaws, the name of this organization changed over the years, and the term “Curb Market” appeared on several versions of its constitutions and bylaws. The MCEHA (known as the “Mecklenburg County Extension and Community Association” at the time of its closure) was like so many other county extension associations, and its members were involved in a wide variety of educational programs and volunteer activities that focused on domesticity—particularly in the latter part of the twentieth century. One of the more noteworthy aspects of the extension homemakers’ movement was its attention to the needs of African-American homemakers, especially prior to and during the Civil Rights Movement. The organizers of extension homemaker associations recognized the needs of African-American women living in rural areas, and they prepared home economics literature especially for that demographic, some of which is found in this collection (see boxes 3:40 and 4:32). [Sources: Mecklenburg County Extension Homemakers Association records, Mss 400, Atkins Library, Special Collections.]