The purpose of this research is to examine the life of a courageous woman who pioneered in the development of social organizations for the elevation and betterment of the Black community in the early twentieth century in Atlanta. The research will show how Mrs. John Hope, a black woman, struggled against a hostile and racist society in an effort to help build a respectable and healthy black community in the city of Atlanta. This research was executed by the careful examination of primary sources, such as speeches, letters, newspapers, minutes and Mrs. Hope's memoranda presently found in the Neighborhood Union Collection located in the Atlanta University Trevor Arnett Library Archives. Oral history, a new innovation in the field, is also used in the effort to present a biographical profile of this outstanding pioneer. The historical method of analyzing, categorizing, collecting, and communicating evidence and and documents are used in the presentation of this information. It is the researcher's intention to show that Mrs. John Hope was instrumental in pioneering in the idea of self-help and community building in Black Atlanta. The research also examines the activities of Mrs. Hope as a prototype of the black woman's role in the struggle for black survival and dignity.

This thesis examines the work of reformer Lugenia Burns Hope and her community organization, the Neighborhood Union, as a case study to unpack scholarly characterizations of black elite uplift strategies during the early 20th century. The Neighborhood Union was established in 1908 in Atlanta by Hope and women from the community to build stronger neighborhoods and to combat the deleterious effects of the 1906 Race Riots and Jim Crow laws. Neighborhood Union settlement houses provided basic and extracurricular services, including kindergartens for working mothers, vocational classes, and lecture series. The organization’s exceptional, multi-class leadership structure enabled members of the black poor and working classes to lead their own projects with the assistance of Neighborhood Union resources. Hope’s background provides evidence against broad generalizations of the black elite as paternalistic, and her vision of creating democratic communities that diminished class barriers provides a counter narrative to characterizations of clubwomen and the black elite as engaging in respectability politics in their social work. Understood within its historical and sociopolitical context, Hope’s life and work also challenge mainstream narratives of the Progressive Era and the Social Gospel movement.