THE YOUNG WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION The Girl Reserve
Reading edition
If she’s a three-angled, true “Y” Girl Reserve; The world she is willing to Christlike serve: Her sunshine smiles will come thru rains; Her kind heart will guide her fertile brains: She will love to work as well as play; She will have “good times” but not too gay: She will swim the streams and camp the woods; She will love all sports that are pure and good: And thus she learns “the simple life” reader To make her some day a great woman leader. —Harrison.
UNDER the sisterly and wise supervision of Miss Eva D. Bowles, as the first salaried Y. W. C. A. Colored branch secretary in New York City and since then Executive of Colored Work, the Young Women’s Christian Association for Colored girls and women has made wonderful progress, since 1907 when Mrs. Wm. A. Hunton was appointed by the National Board to investigate and arouse interest in the work. As Special Student Worker, Miss Catherine Lealted greatly aided in building up and strengthening this work in Colored schools until she took up work in another field of uplift.
Today there are over fifty city Y. W. C. A. Colored Branches in as many cities in 23 states and the District of Columbia; while there are at least 100 such branches in Colored schools located in 18 States and the District of Columbia. Just as the school branches are the means of helping to build up and fortify the practical Christian minds of the girls who join them; the city branches prove sheltering havens and protections for self-respecting and self-supporting Colored single girls and women when they leave such schools and respectable homes to embark upon the rough oceans of life and desire to nightly anchor in places of moral protection, social uplift, mental development, sanitary conditions, congenial companionships, pleasures of innocence and Christian influences. For the safe arrival and calm anchorage of such Colored girls and women, the writer assures them that the following list of addresses is a true compass needle that will, when they set-sail for a new city port, safely guide them into any of the following beacon-lighted Y. W. C. A. Christian Harbors:
Atlanta, Georgia, Y. W. C. A., 196 Piedmont Avenue. Augusta, Georgia, Y. W. C. A., 1104 Gwinnett Street. Baltimore, Maryland, Y. W. C. A., 1200 Druid Hill Avenue. Bridgeport, Conn., Y. W. C. A., 70 Beach Street. Brooklyn, N. Y., Y. W. C. A., 45 Ashland Place. Camden, N. J., Y. W. C. A., 829 Kaighn Avenue. Charleston, S. C., Y. W. C. A., 106 Coming Street. Chattanooga, Tenn., Y. W. C. A., 411 East 9th Street. Chicago, Ill., Y. W. C. A., 3541 Indiana Avenue. Cincinnati, Ohio, Y. W. C. A., 704 Eighth Street. Columbia, S. C., Y. W. C. A., 1323 Assembly Street. Columbus, Ohio, Y. W. C. A., 495 East Long Street. Dayton, Ohio, Y. W. C. A., 800 West Fifth Street. Des Moines, Iowa, Y. W. C. A., 728 Walnut Street. Detroit, Mich., Y. W. C. A., 2111 St. Aubin Avenue. East St. Louis, Mo., Y. W. C. A., 826 East Broadway. Fort Worth, Texas, Y. W. C. A., 415 East 6th Avenue. Germantown, Pa., Y. W. C. A., 6128 Germantown Avenue. Harrisburg, Pa., Y. W. C. A., 804 Cowden Street. Houston, Texas, Y. W. C. A., 806 Clay Avenue. Jersey City, N. J., Y. W. C. A., 31 Ege Avenue. Kansas City, Mo., Y. W. C. A., 1501 East 19th Street. Little Rock, Ark., Y. W. C. A., 924 Gaines Street. Los Angeles, Cal., Y. W. C. A., 1108 West 12th Street. Louisville, Ky., Y. W. C. A., 1021 W. Madison Street. Lynchburg, Va., Y. W. C. A., 613 Monroe Street. McKeesport, Pa., Y. W. C. A., 317 Tenth Street. Montclair, N. J., Y. W. C. A., 159 Glenridge Avenue. Nashville, Tenn., Y. W. C. A., 436 Fifth Avenue, North. Newark, N. J., Y. W. C. A., 71 Wilsey Street. Newcastle, Pa., Y. W. C. A., 140 Elm Street. Newport News, Va., Y. W. C. A., 2300 Madison Avenue. New York City, N. Y., Y. W. C. A., 179 West 137th Street. Oakland, Cal., Y. W. C. A., 828 Linden Street. Omaha, Neb., Y. W. C. A., 2306 No. 22nd Street. Orange, N. J., Y. W. C. A., 78 Oakwood Avenue. Petersburg, Va., Y. W. C. A., 457 Harding Street. Philadelphia, Pa., Y. W. C. A., 756 South 16th Street. Pittsburgh, Pa., Y. W. C. A., 2215 Wylie Avenue. Portland, Oregon, Y. W. C. A., Broadway and Taylor Streets. Richmond, Va., Y. W. C. A., 515 South 7th Street. San Antonio, Texas, Y. W. C. A., 328 North Pino Street. St. Joseph, Mo., Y. W. C. A., 1021 Francis Street. St. Louis, Mo., Y. W. C. A., 703 North Garrison Street. St. Paul, Minn., Y. W. C. A., 598 West Central Avenue. Springfield, Ohio, Y. W. C. A., 134 West Clark Street. Warren, Ohio, Y. W. C. A., 132 North Park Avenue. Washington, D.C., Y. W. C. A., 901 Rhode Island Avenue. Williamsport, Pa., Y. W. C. A., 429 Walnut Street. Winston-Salem, N. C., Y. W. C. A., 717 East Depot Street. Youngstown, Ohio, Y. W. C. A., 248 Belmont Avenue.
Among the foremost Y. W. C. A. Colored leaders who are so nobly and ably assisting Miss Eva D. Bowles in the smooth and efficient supervision of the above named branches are Misses May B. Belcher, Crystal Bird, Mabel Brady, Mary E. Jackson, Josephine Pinyon, Lucy B. Richmond, Adele F. Ruffin, Clayda Williams, Mrs. Charlton Wallace, and Mrs. Cordella A. Winn. Before her death on December 31, 1919, Mrs. Marie A. Wilder was one of the most faithful and hardest workers in the above group.
But the main stream of success connected with this work has come about through the “working together” “branch relationship” co-operation on the parts of Mrs. Samuel J. Broadwell, Treasurer; Miss Mable Cratty, Gen’l Sec’y; Mrs. Jas. S. Cushman, 1st Vice-Pres.; Mrs. John French, Chairman Execu. Com.; Mrs. Lewis H. Lapham, Sec’y; Mrs. Wm. W. Rossiter, 2nd Vice-Pres.; and Mrs. Robt. E. Speer, President, who compose the National Board (white) of The Young Womens Christian Association of the United States of America. And in the different cities where they are established the white and Colored branch workers are carrying on the above co-operations. During the World War, the War Work Council showed its co-operation by appointing a Colored Work Committee with Miss Eva D. Bowles as Executive and Mrs. Charlton Wallace as Chairman and, The War Work Council, “recognizing the loyalty and need of the colored girls and women in this country, appropriated $400,000 for the work.”
In speaking of the work of this committee Miss Bowles said, “The Y. W. C. A. is the only organization that is handling the work with all girls alike, and the result of its efforts is bound to be the building up of the confidence of the colored race, not only in the nation itself but in Christianity. With the colored, as with all other women and girls throughout the world, the aim of the Y. W. C. A. is a constructive foundation of Christian ideals. Girls are girls, whatever their race or complexion. As naturally as a flower demands sunshine and rain, a girl craves good times, pretty clothes and happiness.”
In closing this vital chapter, the writer can think of no better way than to quote the following words of Miss Bowles when she summed up the past and pointed out the future regarding the leaderships of Colored women among their own people in the United States.
“The war has given opportunity to the colored woman to prove her ability for leadership. She had her chance and she made good. With all the strength of having suffered, she will be able, through the patience born of suffering, to lead the women and girls whom only she can lead. The time is past for white leadership for colored people. As white and colored women, we must understand each other, we must think and work and plan together for upon all of us rests the responsibility of the girlhood of our nation.”
