Positive examples aren't child's play for Jack and Jill
"We created a village by sharing the upbringing of our kids," said Horn of Renton. "We're a family."
Jack and Jill is a national organization for black mothers that promotes positive child development through cultural, civic and social activities. Local members get together regularly to share thoughts and life experiences, give their kids exposure to other black youths and search for ways to fill the cultural voids they worry could hurt their children's identities.
"Jack and Jill is a synthetic fix to a big problem," said Carlla Joyner, who lives in a largely white Shoreline neighborhood. "It is a tie that keeps us connected. We go to Jack and Jill to get serious about our blackness."
Jack and Jill of America was founded in 1938 during racial segregation by a group of Philadelphia-area mothers whose children didn't have access to the social activities available to white kids.
Now it is for children in upwardly mobile black families who have so much inclusion in white activities that parents feel they may be too socially and geographically isolated from their heritage.
Horn said she tried to broaden her children's social base by signing them up for after-school activities, like dance and karate.
"Nothing stuck," she said, "until Jack and Jill allowed them to interact productively with other African-American children. I didn't have to push them."
Nationwide, there are 214 chapters of Jack and Jill, and two in Nigeria. There are three in this region — greater Seattle (started in 1958), North Puget Sound and Tacoma.
Mothers, who hold the Jack and Jill membership, must be invited to join. Prospective members (with children age 2 to high school) attend an orientation to learn about the group and the time commitment.
The organization has long had a reputation of being elitist, both because of the dues, which fluctuate each year based on activities, and the entry process. Members are voted in. When it started, single mothers and nonblack women were not allowed to join.
Current members say those rules have changed, and that the club has become more inclusive.
Carol Brown of Shoreline, who grew up attending private schools in South Central Los Angeles, says she had no black friends until Jack and Jill.
"I knew when I had kids that I wanted them to be involved," Brown said. "Growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood, they would have no exposure to other kids of color."
Brown also wanted her son to be exposed to community service. Through Jack and Jill, he's distributed food to the homeless, wrapped gifts for children in foster care and worked on the Seattle Literacy Project. He has also been introduced to African-American art, visited black colleges and gone to the opera.
Each club has a monthly meeting and activity. Fathers are often welcome, but mothers are the staple. They sponsor the kids until they are teens, then the youths meet separately, run their own meetings and elect their own officers.
"Some of their only opportunities to shine come from Jack and Jill," Horn said. "In an isolated community, you do whatever it takes to give them the black experience."
Leslie Fulbright: 206-515-5637 or lfulbright@seattletimes.com