Historians have correctly interpreted the Gilded Age and Progressive Era as periods in which African Americans faced unpreceded violence, a significant decline in franchise, and the loss of many civil rights. These years however, were far more complex when viewed from the vantage point of African American families who attempted to empower themselves through education, securing employment in white-collar occupations, such as teaching, and working to advance themselves through race betterment groups, including women’s clubs and civil rights organizations. Yet some middle-class Black families like the Stewarts not only rejected white society’s widely held belief of Blacks as racially inferior and incapable of progress. They also embraced migration as a constructive strategy to advance their individual careers and to elevate the race. In an era when the majority of Black workers had minimal literacy and worked unskilled menial jobs, T. McCants Stewart and his children each graduated from college or professional school, worked in white-collar or professional jobs, and paved the way for the next generation. Yet each also understood that migration outside of the Jim Crow South, including to Africa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the territory of Hawaii, held the key to their success. Thus, the Stewarts constructed a new vision of freedom and opportunity and believed that even despite the repressive conditions imposed upon Blacks during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era that there was room for growth and an opportunity to advance their careers. Migration, therefore, should be reconsidered as a viable strategy that some Black families adopted to find their place in American society.

中文翻译：

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仍在寻找：镀金时代和进步时代黑人家庭对平等和认可的追求

历史学家正确地将镀金时代和进步时代解释为非洲裔美国人面临前所未有的暴力、选举权显着下降以及许多公民权利丧失的时期。然而，从非洲裔美国家庭的角度来看，这些年要复杂得多，他们试图通过教育增强自己的权能，在教学等白领职业中找到工作，并努力通过种族改善团体（包括女性）来提升自己俱乐部和民权组织。然而，像斯图尔特一家这样的一些中产阶级黑人家庭不仅拒绝了白人社会普遍持有的黑人种族低人一等、无法进步的信念。他们还将移民视为推进个人职业发展和提升种族地位的建设性战略。在一个大多数黑人工人识字率低且从事非熟练体力工作的时代，T. McCants Stewart 和他的孩子们各自从大学或专业学校毕业，从事白领或专业工作，为下一代铺平了道路. 然而，每个人也都明白，迁移到吉姆克劳南方以外的地区，包括迁移到非洲、美属维尔京群岛和夏威夷领土，是他们成功的关键。因此，斯图尔特夫妇构建了一个关于自由和机会的新愿景，并相信即使在镀金时代和进步时代强加给黑人的压迫条件下，他们仍有成长的空间和发展事业的机会。因此，移民应该被重新考虑为一些黑人家庭为在美国社会中找到自己的位置而采取的可行策略。