NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COLORED WOMEN National Colored Club Women

WHILE they went about their self-imposed and greatly beneficial tasks in somewhat crude ways that were executed under circumstances far more trying and peculiar than these modern times; nevertheless, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth may be rightly called the first real welfare and uplift national workers among American Colored women. And the histories of the untiring efforts, speakings and lectures of those two pioneers who fearlessly worked for the freedom of their Race sisters and brothers should be learned by all Colored youths, especially girls.

While leading Colored women throughout the country as far back as 1894 had already decided and carefully planned to gather and form some kind of a national body among themselves, they were indeed suddenly inspired to whole-heartedly and fearlessly carry out those plans immediately, when a prejudiced white editor of a village paper in the United States published an open letter in which he accused alike all American Colored women as being without moral characters and uplifting principles. Not only the educated, refined and moral Colored women resented and challenged that poisoned-pen letter that had lied on and slandered a whole race of their sisters, but the largest nationally known white newspapers of large cities in both America and Europe came out in broad-minded editorials verbally chastising and denouncing without mercy that editor of their race who stained his profession and shamed his race by stooping so low in unsuccessfully using that narrow-minded and short-sighted means of gaining subscriptions for his failing paper and fame for his unheard of name.

As a result of the above plans and decisions nearly a dozen States sent upward of a hundred leading and representative Colored women who met in July 1895 in Boston, Mass., where the first National Convention of Colored Women was formed, with Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin as president, Mrs. Booker T. Washington and Mrs. Helen Cook as Vice-Presidents and Miss Elizabeth C. Carter as secretary. During the meeting that convention was given the name of “The National Association of Colored Women.” This body became affiliated with The National Council of Women in 1900 and was incorporated in 1904. At different times it has had as its presidents; Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, A. M., Washington, D.C., Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Institute, Ala., Miss Elizabeth C. Carter, New Bedford, Mass., Mrs. Mary B. Talbert, Buffalo, N. Y. and Miss Hallie Q. Brown, Wilberforce, Ohio, who is its present presiding officer. Those who are Miss Brown’s closest assistants in helping to carry on this noble work are named as follows: Mrs. Janie Porter Barrett, Peake, Va., Mrs. Ruth L. Bennett, Chester, Pa., Mrs. Alice Cary, Atlanta, Ga., Mrs. Charlotte Dett, Niagara Falls, N. Y., Mrs. Addie W. Dickerson, Phila., Pa., Mrs. C. L. Hamilton, Indianola, Ill., Mrs. C. R. McDowell, Hannibal, Mo., Mrs. J. C. Napier, Nashville, Tenn., Miss Georgia A. Nugent, Louisville, Ky., Mrs. Minnie Scott, Toledo, Ohio, Mrs. E. J. N. Simms, Spokane, Wash., Mrs. Mamie E. Steward, Louisville, Ky., Mrs. Marion Wilkerson, Orangeburg, S. C. and Mrs. W. T. B. Williams, Tuskegee Institute, Ala.

In regard to the relations of this association with the International Council of Women, several Colored women have attended different European meetings as representatives from the United States. Foremost among such women are Miss Hallie Q. Brown, Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, Mrs. Mary B. Talbert and Dr. Mary F. Waring. The following is an extract from the July 1921 issue of The Crisis:

“The Committee on International Relations—the highest committee of women in personnel of representatives in the League of Nations—has chosen Mrs. Mary B. Talbert as a member. Mrs. Talbert was the first accredited Negro delegate to sit in the International Council of women and one of five American women to speak for the National Council of Women of the United States of America in the House of Parliament at Norway.”

The quotation below is taken from the February 1921 issue of The Favorite Magazine. “Dr. Mary F. Waring, recently returned from a trip through eleven European countries, and one of twenty American women to represent the United States at the International Council of Women in Norway. She had the distinction of being the only woman commissioner of the Lincoln Jubilee in 1915 and the organizer of the Red Cross units Canteen and Home Nursing classes during the World War. After the war the Community Service appointed her as a national organizer for girls’ work.”

Some of the national leading and most prominent Colored women before the public today who as workers in this association or along other elevating lines have encouraged, inspired and helped thousands of American Colored girls to move out of Nobody’s Alley and live on Somebody’s Avenue are Miss Mary M. Bethune, Daytona, Fla., Miss Eva D. Bowles, New York City, N. Y., Miss Hallie Q. Brown, Wilberforce, O., Miss Nannie H. Burroughs, Washington, D.C., Madame E. Azalia Hackley, Detroit, Mich., Mrs. Addie W. Hunton, New York City, N. Y., Miss Jane E. Hunter, Cleveland, O., Miss Lucey Laney, Augusta, Ga., Mrs. S. W. Layton, Phila., Pa., Mrs. R. R. Moton, Tuskegee, Ala., Mrs. Alice Dunbar Nelson, Wilmington, Del., Mrs. Mary B. Talbert, Buffalo, N. Y., Mrs. Florence C. Talbert, Detroit, Mich., Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, Washington, D. C., Mrs. Maggie L. Walker, Richmond, Va., Dr. Mary F. Waring, Chicago., Ill., Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Institute, Ala. and Mrs. Butler R. Wilson, Boston, Mass.