August 19, 2025 • 27 mins
This remarkable volume, published in 1919 by the American Womens Baptist Home Mission Society, highlights the vital contributions of African American women. It eloquently addresses the often-overlooked invisible work performed by these women as mothers and wives, while also showcasing their significant roles in various industries, including medicine, education, and the arts. Additionally, this collection features inspiring short biographies of five courageous women who have made a lasting impact. - Summary by kathrinee
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Section zero of Women of Achievement. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
by Betty B. Women of Achievement by Benjamin Griffith Brawley
The Fireside Schools. The work of the Fireside Schools was
(00:24):
begun in eighteen eighty four by Joanna P. Moore, who
was born in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, September twenty sixth, eighteen
thirty two, and who died in Selma, Alabama, April fifteenth,
nineteen sixteen. For fifty years, Miss Moore was well known
as an earnest worker for the betterment of the Negro
(00:45):
people of the South, Beginning in the course of the
Civil War. At Island Number ten in November eighteen sixty three,
she gave herself untiringly to the work to which she
felt called. In eighteen sixty four, she minted to a
group of people at Helena, Arkansas. In eighteen sixty eight,
she went to Lauderdale, Mississippi, to help the friends in
(01:08):
an orphan asylum. While she was at one time left
temporarily in charge of the institution. Cholera broke out and
eleven children died within one week, but she remained at
her post until the fury of the plague was abated.
She spent nine years in the vicinity of New Orleans,
reading the Bible to those who could not read, writing
(01:29):
letters in search of lost ones, and especially caring for
the helpless old women that she met. In eighteen seventy seven,
the Woman's American Baptist Home Missionary Society gave her its
first commission. The object of the Fireside Schools is to
secure the daily prayerful study of God's Word by having
(01:51):
this read to parents and children together, to teach parents
in children, husbands and wives their respective duties one to another,
apply homes with good reading matter, and also to inculcate temperance, industry,
neighborly helpfulness, and greater attention to the work of the Church.
The Publication of Hope, the organ of the Fireside Schools,
(02:14):
was begun in eighteen eighty five. Closely associated with the
schools are the Bible Bands, a single band consisting of
any two or three people in the same church or
neighborhood who meet to review the lessons in hope, and
to report and plan Christian work. All the activities are
under the general supervision of the Woman's American Baptist Home
(02:37):
Mission Society, though the Special Fireside School headquarters are at
six hundred twelve Gay Street, Nashville, Tennessee. The present work
is dedicated to the memory of Joanna P. Moore and
to the wives and mothers and sisters, now happily numbered
by the thousands who are engaged in the work of
the Fireside Schools. One introduction the Negro woman in American life.
(03:05):
In the history of the Negro race in America, no
more heroic work has been done than that performed by
the Negro woman. The great responsibilities of life have naturally
drifted to the men. But who can measure the patience,
the love, the self sacrifice of those who, in a
more humble way have labored for their people, and, even
(03:27):
in the midst of war, striven most earnestly to keep
the home fires burning. Even before emancipation, a strong character
had made herself felt in more than one community, And
to day, whether in public life, social service, education, missions, business, literature, music,
(03:47):
or even the professions and scholarship, the Negro woman is
making her way and reflecting credit upon a race that,
for so many years now has been struggling to the light.
It was but natural that those should first become known
who were interested in the uplift of the race. If
we accept such an unusual and specially gifted spirit as
(04:10):
Phyllis Wheatley, we shall find that those who most impressed
the American public before the Civil War were the ones
who best identified themselves with the general struggle for freedom.
Outstanding was the famous lecturer Sojourner Truth. This remarkable woman
was born of slave parents in the state of New
York about seventeen ninety eight. She recalled vividly in her
(04:34):
later years the cold, damp cellar room in which slept
the slaves of the family to which she belonged, and
where she was taught by her mother to repeat the
Lord's prayer and to trust God at all times. When,
in the course of the process of gradual emancipation in
New York she became legally free in eighteen twenty seven,
(04:56):
her master refused to comply with the law. She left,
but pursued and found Rather than have her go back, however,
a friend paid for her services for the rest of
the year. Then there came an evening when searching for
one of her children that had been stolen and sold,
she found herself without a resting place for the night.
(05:16):
A Quaker family, however, gave her lodging. Afterwards, she went
to New York City, joined a Methodist church, and worked
hard to improve her condition. Later, having decided to leave
New York for a lecture tour through the East, she
made a small bundle of her belongings and informed a
friend that her name was no longer Isabella as she
(05:37):
had been known, but Sojourner afterwards, as she herself said,
finding that she needed two names, she adopted Truth, because
it was intended that she should declare the truth to
the people. She went on her way, lecturing to people
wherever she found them, assembled and being entertained in many
aristocratic homes. She was entirely untold in the schools, but
(06:01):
tall and of commanding presence, original, witty, and always suggestive.
The stories told about her are numberless, but she was
ever moved by an abiding trust in God, and she
counted among her friends many of the most distinguished Americans
of her time. By her tact and her gift of song,
she kept down ridicule, and by her fervor and faith
(06:24):
she won many friends for the anti slavery cause. It
was impossible, of course, for any single woman to carry
on the tradition of such a character as Sojourner Truth.
She belonged to a distinct epoch in the country's history,
one in which the rights of the negro and the
rights of women in general were frequently discussed on the
(06:44):
same platform, and she passed so far as her greatest
influence was concerned with her epoch. In more recent years,
those women who have represented the race before the larger
public have been persons of more training and culture, so
it has been practically impossible for anyone to equal the
native force and wit of Sojourner Truth. Outstanding in recent
(07:08):
years have been Missus Booker T. Washington and Missus Mary
Church Terrell. The spread of culture, however, and the general
force of the social emphasis, have more and more led
those who were interested in social betterment to come together
so that there might be the greater effect from united effort.
Thus we have had developing in almost all of our
(07:30):
cities and towns, various clubs working for the good of
the race. Whether the immediate aim was literary culture, an orphanage,
an old folks home, the protection of working girls, or
something else similarly noble. Prominent among the pioneers in such
work were Missus Josephine Saint Pierre Ruffin of Boston and
(07:51):
Missus John T. Cook of Washington, d C. No one
can record exactly how much has been accomplished by these organizations.
In fact, the clubs range all the way in effectiveness,
from one that is a dominating force in its town
to one that is struggling to get started. The result
of the work, however, would be in any case sum
(08:14):
up with an astonishing total. A report from Illinois fairly
representative of the stronger work mentioned the following activities. The
k Row Hospital fostered and under the supervision of the
Yates Club of kro The Anna Field Home for Girls, Peoria, Lincoln,
Old Folks and Orphans Home founded by Missus Eva Munroe
(08:37):
and assisted by the Women's Club of Springfield. The Home
for Aged and Infirm Colored People Chicago, founded by Missus
Gabrella Smith and others. The Amanda Smith Orphans Home, Harvey,
the Phyllis Wheatley Home for Wage Earning Girls of Chicago.
In Alabama. The State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs has
(08:59):
established and is supporting a reformatory at Mount Meigs for
Negro boys, and the women are very enthusiastic about the work.
A beautiful and well ordered home for Negro girls was
established a few years ago in Virginia of the White
Rose Mission of New York. We are told that it
has done much good. A large number of needy ones
(09:21):
have found shelter within its doors and have been able
to secure work of all kinds. This club has a
committee to meet the incoming steamers from the South and
see that young women entering the city of strangers are
directed to proper homes. All such work is touching in
its tenderness and effectiveness. The National Association of Colored Women's
(09:44):
Clubs was founded in eighteen ninety six. The organization has
become stronger and stronger, until it is now a powerful
and defective one with hundreds of members. One of its
recent activities has been the purchase of the home of
Frederick Douglas at Anacostia d c. In education, church life,
(10:04):
and missions special forms of social service, we have only
to look around us to see what the Negro woman
is accomplishing. Not only is she bearing the brunt of
common school education for the race. In more than one instance,
a strong character moved to do something has started on
a career of success. A good secondary or industrial school
(10:27):
representative are the Vorhees Normal and Industrial School at Denmark,
South Carolina, founded by Elizabeth C. Wright, the Daytona Normal
and Industrial Institute for Negro girls founded by missus M. M. Bethoone,
and the Mount Meigs Institute Mount Maigs, Alabama, founded by
Miss Cornelia Bowen. Noteworthy for its special missionary emphasis is
(10:51):
the National Training School of Washington, of which Miss Nanny H.
Burrows is the head. One of the most important recent
developments and education has been the appointment of a number
of young women as supervisors in county schools under the
terms of the will of Annate Genes, a Quaker lady
of Philadelphia who left a considerable sum of money for
(11:14):
the improvement of the rural schools of the South. In
church work, we all know the extent to which women
have had to bear the burden not only of the
regular activities, but also of the numerous rallies that still
so unfortunately afflict our churches. Deserving of special mention in
connection with social service is the work of those who
(11:35):
have labored under the auspices of the Young Women's Christian Association,
which has done so much for the moral well being
of the Great Camps in the war. In foreign mission work.
One of the educational institutions sustained primarily by Northern Baptist agencies,
Spelman's seminary stands out with distinct prominence, not only as
(11:57):
Spelman sent to Africa of her daughters from this country,
the first one being Nora Gordon in eighteen eighty nine.
She has also educated several who have come to her
from Africa, the first being Lena Clark. And for these
the hope has ever been that they would return to
their own country for their largest and most mature service.
(12:19):
In the realm of business, the Negro woman has stood
side by side with their husband in the rise to
higher things. In almost every instance in which a man
has prospered, investigation will show that his advance was very
largely due to the faith, the patience, and the untiring
effort of his wife. Doctor B. T. Washington, in his
(12:41):
book The Negro in Business, gave several examples. One of
the outstanding instances was in the story of Junius G. Groves,
famous potato grower of Edwardsville, Kansas. This man moved from
his original home in Kentucky to Kansas at the time
of the well known Exodus of aiighteen seventy nine, a
(13:01):
migration movement which was even more voluntary on the part
of the Negro than the recent removal to the north
on the part of so many, this latter movement being
in so many ways a result of war conditions. Mister Groves,
in course of time, became a man of large responsibilities
and means. It is most interesting, however, to go back
(13:23):
to his early days of struggle. We read as follows.
Soon after getting the crop planet, mister Groves decided to marry.
When he reached this decision, he had but seventy five
cents in cash and had to borrow enough to satisfy
the demands of the law. But he knew well the
worth and common sense of the woman he was to marry.
(13:45):
She was as poor and worldly goods as himself, but
their poverty did not discourage them in their plans. During
the whole season, they worked with never tiring energy early
and late, with the result that when the crop had
been harvested and all debts paid, they had cleared one
hundred twenty five dollars. Notwithstanding their lack of many necessaries
(14:06):
of life, to say nothing of comforts, they decided to
invest fifty dollars of their earnings in a lot in
Kansas City, Kansas. They paid twenty five dollars for a
milk cow and kept the remaining fifty dollars to be
used in the making of another crop. In the course
of a few years, mister Groves, with the help of
(14:26):
his wife, now the mother of a large family, gathered
in one year hundreds of thousands of bushels of white potatoes,
surpassing all other growers in the world. Similarly was the
success of E. C. Barry, a hotel keeper of Athens, Ohio,
due to his wife. At night, after his guests had
fallen asleep, it was his custom to go around and
(14:49):
gather up their clothes and take them to his wife,
who would add buttons which were lacking repair, rents, and
press the garments, after which mister Barry would replace them
in the guests rooms. Guests who had received such treatment
returned again and brought their friends with them. In course
of time, mister and missus Barry came to own the
(15:10):
leading hotel in Athens, one of fifty rooms, and of
special favor with commercial travelers. Such examples could be multiplied indefinitely.
It is not only in such spheres that the worth
of the Negro woman has been shown, however, daily, in
thousands of homes, in little stores and on humble farms,
effort just as heroic has been exerted, though the result
(15:34):
is not always so evident on their own initiative. Also,
women are now engaging in large enterprises. The most conspicuous
example of material success is undoubtedly Mademoiselle C. J. Walker
of the Mademoiselle C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company of Indianapolis
and New York, a business that is now conducted on
(15:56):
a large scale and in accordance with the best business
methods of America. Important also in this connection is the
very great contribution that Negro women, very often those without
education and opportunity, are making in the ordinary industrial life
of the country. According to the census of nineteen ten,
(16:17):
one million, forty seven thousand, one hundred forty six, or
fifty two percent of those at work were either farmers
or farm labors, and twenty eight percent more were either
cooks or washerwomen. In other words, a total of exactly
eighty percent were doing some of the hardest and at
the same time some of the most necessary work in
(16:40):
our home and industrial life. These are workers whose worth
has never been fully appreciated by the larger public, and
who needed the heavy demands of the Great War to
call attention to the actual value of the service they
were rendering. The changes in fact brought about within the
last few years, largely as a result of war conditions,
(17:01):
are remarkable. As Mary E. Jackson, writing in The Crisis,
has said, Indiana reports Negro women in glass works in Ohio.
They are found on the night shifts of glass works.
They have gone into the pottery works in Virginia, woodworking
plants and lumber yards have called for their help in Tennessee.
(17:22):
She also quotes Rachel S. Gallagher of Cleveland, Ohio, as
saying of the Negro women in that city, we find
them on power sewing machines, making caps, wastes, bags and mops.
We find them doing pressing and various hand operations in
these same shops. They are employed in knitting factories as winders.
(17:42):
In a number of laundries, on mangles of every type,
and in sorting and marking. They are in paper box factories,
doing both hand and machine work, in button factories, on
the button machines, in packing houses, packing meat in railroad yards,
wiping and cleaning engines, and doing sorting in railroad shops.
(18:03):
One of our workers recently found two colored girls on
a nodding machine in a bed spring factory, putting the
knots in the wire springs. In the professions such as
medicine and law, and in scholarship as well, the negro
woman has blazed a path one year after Oberlin College
in Ohio was founded in eighteen thirty three, thirty years
(18:26):
before the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the trustees took
the advanced ground of admitting Negro men and women on
equal terms with other students of the northern colleges and universities.
Oberlin still leads in the number of its Negro women graduates,
but in recent years other such institutions as Radcliffe, Wellesley,
(18:48):
Columbia and Chicago have been represented in an increasing number
by those who have finished their work credibly and even
with distinction in many instances. More and more each year
are young women at these institutions going forward to the
attainment of the higher scholastic degrees. In connection with medicine,
(19:08):
we recall the work in the war of the Negro
woman in the related profession of nursing. It was only
after considerable discussion that she was given a genuine opportunity
in red cross work. But she at once vindicated herself.
In the legal profession, she has not only been admitted
to practice in various places, but has also been appointed
(19:30):
to public office. It must be understood that such positions
as those just remarked are not secured without a struggle.
But all told, they indicate that the race, through its womanhood,
is more and more taking part in the general life
of the country. In keeping with the romantic quality of
the race, it was but natural that from the first
(19:52):
there should have been special effort at self expression in literature, music,
and other forms of art. The first Negro woman to
strike the public imagination was Phyllis Wheatley, who, even as
a young girl wrote acceptable verse. Her poems on various subjects,
published in seventeen seventy three, at once attracted attention, and
(20:14):
it was fitting that the first Negro woman to become
distinguished in America should be one of outstanding piety and
nobility of soul. Just a few years before the Civil War,
Francis Ellen Watkins, better known as Missus F. E. W. Harper,
entered upon her career as a writer of popular poetry.
(20:34):
At the present time, attention centers especially upon Missus Georgia
Douglas Johnson, who early in nineteen eighteen produced In the
Heart of a Woman, a little volume of delicate and
poignantly beautiful verse, and from whom greater and greater things
are expected, as she not only has the temperament of
(20:55):
an artist, but has also undergone a period of severe
training in her chosen field. In the wider field of prose,
including especially stories, essays, and sketches, Missus Alice Moore Dunbar
Nelson is prominent. In eighteen ninety nine she produced The
Goodness of Saint Roque and other stories, and since then
(21:16):
has continued her good work in various ways. The whole
field of literature is a wide one, one naturally appealing
to many of the younger women, and one that, with
all its difficulties and lack of financial return, does offer
some genuine reward to the candidate who is willing to
work hard and who does not seek a short cut
(21:38):
to fame. In music, the race has produced more women
of distinction than in any other field. This was natural,
for the Negro voice is world famous. The pity is
that all too frequently some of the most capable young
women have not had the means to cultivate their talents,
and hence have fallen by the wayside. Some day, it
(21:59):
is to be hoped that a great philanthropist will endow
a real conservatory at which such persons may find some
genuine opportunity and encouragement in their development in their days
of struggle. In spite of all the difficulties, however, there
have been singers who have risen to very high things
in their art. Even before the Civil War, the race
(22:22):
produced one of the first rank in Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield,
who came into prominence in eighteen fifty one. This artist,
born in Mississippi, was taken to Philadelphia and there cared
for by a Quaker lady. The young woman did not
soon reveal her gift to her friend, thinking that it
might be frowned upon as something too worldly. Her guardian
(22:45):
learned of it by accident however, and one day surprised
her by asking, Elizabeth, is it true that THEE can sing? Yes,
replied the young woman, in confusion, let me hear thee,
and Elizabeth sang, and her friend, realizing that she had
a voice of the first quality, proceeded to give her
the best instruction that it was possible to get. Elizabeth
(23:07):
Taylor Greenfield had a marvelous voice, embracing twenty seven notes,
reaching from the sonorous bass of a baritone to the
highest soprano. A voice with a range of more than
three octaves naturally attracted much attention in both England and America,
and comparisons with Jenny Lynn, then at the height of
(23:29):
her great fame, were frequent. In the next generation arose
Madame Selika, a cultured singer of the first rank, and
one who, by her arius and operatic work generally as
well as by her mastery of language, won great success
on the continent of Europe, as well as in England
and America. The careers of some later singers are so
(23:52):
recent as to be still fresh in the public memory. Some,
in fact, may still be heard. It was in eighteen
eighty seven that Flora Batson entered on the period of
her greatest success, she was a ballad singer, and her
work at its best was of the sort that sends
an audience into the wildest enthusiasm. In a series of
(24:12):
temperance meetings in New York, she sang for ninety consecutive nights,
with never failing effect one song six feet of Earth
Make Us All One size. Her voice exhibited a compass
of three octaves, but even more important than its range
was its remarkable sympathetic quality. Early in the last decade
(24:33):
of the century appeared also Missus Cissioretta Jones, whose voice
at once commanded attention as one of unusual richness and volume,
and as one exhibiting especially the plaintive quality ever present
in the typical Negro voice. At the present time, there
are several promising singers, and there are also those who,
(24:55):
in various ways, are working for the general advancement of
the race. In music. Missus e Azalia Hackley, for some
years prominent as a concert soprano, has recently given her time,
most largely to the work of teaching and showing the
capabilities of the Negro voice, possessed of a splendid musical temperament.
(25:16):
She has enjoyed the benefit of three years of foreign
study and generally inspired many younger singers or performers. Prominent
among many excellent pianists is Missus Hazel Harrison Anderson, who
also has studied much abroad and has appeared in many
noteworthy recitals. Missus Maud Cooney Hare of Boston, a concert pianist,
(25:39):
has within the last few years given several excellent lecture
recitals dealing with Afro American music. As between painting and sculpture,
the women of the race have shown a decided preference
for sculpture. While there are some students of promise, no
woman has as yet achieved distinction on work of really
(25:59):
professional quo. In the realm of painting. On the other hand,
there have been three or four sculptors of genuine merit.
As early as eighteen sixty five at Monia Lewis began
to attract attention by her busts of prominent people. Within
the last few years, the work of Missus May Howard
(26:19):
Jackson of Washington has attracted the attention of the discerning,
and that of Missus Meta Warwick Fuller is reserved for
special comment. Any such review as this naturally has its limitations.
We can indicate only a few of the outstanding individuals
here and there at least enough has been said, however,
(26:39):
to show that the Negro woman is making her way
at last into every phase of noble endeavor. In the
pages that follow, we shall attempt to set forth, at
somewhat greater length, the life and work of a few
of those whose achievement has been most signal, and whose
interest in their sisters has been unfailing. End of Chapter one,
Section zero of Women of Achievement. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
by Betty B. Women of Achievement by Benjamin Griffith Brawley
The Fireside Schools. The work of the Fireside Schools was
(00:24):
begun in eighteen eighty four by Joanna P. Moore, who
was born in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, September twenty sixth, eighteen
thirty two, and who died in Selma, Alabama, April fifteenth,
nineteen sixteen. For fifty years, Miss Moore was well known
as an earnest worker for the betterment of the Negro
(00:45):
people of the South, Beginning in the course of the
Civil War. At Island Number ten in November eighteen sixty three,
she gave herself untiringly to the work to which she
felt called. In eighteen sixty four, she minted to a
group of people at Helena, Arkansas. In eighteen sixty eight,
she went to Lauderdale, Mississippi, to help the friends in
(01:08):
an orphan asylum. While she was at one time left
temporarily in charge of the institution. Cholera broke out and
eleven children died within one week, but she remained at
her post until the fury of the plague was abated.
She spent nine years in the vicinity of New Orleans,
reading the Bible to those who could not read, writing
(01:29):
letters in search of lost ones, and especially caring for
the helpless old women that she met. In eighteen seventy seven,
the Woman's American Baptist Home Missionary Society gave her its
first commission. The object of the Fireside Schools is to
secure the daily prayerful study of God's Word by having
(01:51):
this read to parents and children together, to teach parents
in children, husbands and wives their respective duties one to another,
apply homes with good reading matter, and also to inculcate temperance, industry,
neighborly helpfulness, and greater attention to the work of the Church.
The Publication of Hope, the organ of the Fireside Schools,
(02:14):
was begun in eighteen eighty five. Closely associated with the
schools are the Bible Bands, a single band consisting of
any two or three people in the same church or
neighborhood who meet to review the lessons in hope, and
to report and plan Christian work. All the activities are
under the general supervision of the Woman's American Baptist Home
(02:37):
Mission Society, though the Special Fireside School headquarters are at
six hundred twelve Gay Street, Nashville, Tennessee. The present work
is dedicated to the memory of Joanna P. Moore and
to the wives and mothers and sisters, now happily numbered
by the thousands who are engaged in the work of
the Fireside Schools. One introduction the Negro woman in American life.
(03:05):
In the history of the Negro race in America, no
more heroic work has been done than that performed by
the Negro woman. The great responsibilities of life have naturally
drifted to the men. But who can measure the patience,
the love, the self sacrifice of those who, in a
more humble way have labored for their people, and, even
(03:27):
in the midst of war, striven most earnestly to keep
the home fires burning. Even before emancipation, a strong character
had made herself felt in more than one community, And
to day, whether in public life, social service, education, missions, business, literature, music,
(03:47):
or even the professions and scholarship, the Negro woman is
making her way and reflecting credit upon a race that,
for so many years now has been struggling to the light.
It was but natural that those should first become known
who were interested in the uplift of the race. If
we accept such an unusual and specially gifted spirit as
(04:10):
Phyllis Wheatley, we shall find that those who most impressed
the American public before the Civil War were the ones
who best identified themselves with the general struggle for freedom.
Outstanding was the famous lecturer Sojourner Truth. This remarkable woman
was born of slave parents in the state of New
York about seventeen ninety eight. She recalled vividly in her
(04:34):
later years the cold, damp cellar room in which slept
the slaves of the family to which she belonged, and
where she was taught by her mother to repeat the
Lord's prayer and to trust God at all times. When,
in the course of the process of gradual emancipation in
New York she became legally free in eighteen twenty seven,
(04:56):
her master refused to comply with the law. She left,
but pursued and found Rather than have her go back, however,
a friend paid for her services for the rest of
the year. Then there came an evening when searching for
one of her children that had been stolen and sold,
she found herself without a resting place for the night.
(05:16):
A Quaker family, however, gave her lodging. Afterwards, she went
to New York City, joined a Methodist church, and worked
hard to improve her condition. Later, having decided to leave
New York for a lecture tour through the East, she
made a small bundle of her belongings and informed a
friend that her name was no longer Isabella as she
(05:37):
had been known, but Sojourner afterwards, as she herself said,
finding that she needed two names, she adopted Truth, because
it was intended that she should declare the truth to
the people. She went on her way, lecturing to people
wherever she found them, assembled and being entertained in many
aristocratic homes. She was entirely untold in the schools, but
(06:01):
tall and of commanding presence, original, witty, and always suggestive.
The stories told about her are numberless, but she was
ever moved by an abiding trust in God, and she
counted among her friends many of the most distinguished Americans
of her time. By her tact and her gift of song,
she kept down ridicule, and by her fervor and faith
(06:24):
she won many friends for the anti slavery cause. It
was impossible, of course, for any single woman to carry
on the tradition of such a character as Sojourner Truth.
She belonged to a distinct epoch in the country's history,
one in which the rights of the negro and the
rights of women in general were frequently discussed on the
(06:44):
same platform, and she passed so far as her greatest
influence was concerned with her epoch. In more recent years,
those women who have represented the race before the larger
public have been persons of more training and culture, so
it has been practically impossible for anyone to equal the
native force and wit of Sojourner Truth. Outstanding in recent
(07:08):
years have been Missus Booker T. Washington and Missus Mary
Church Terrell. The spread of culture, however, and the general
force of the social emphasis, have more and more led
those who were interested in social betterment to come together
so that there might be the greater effect from united effort.
Thus we have had developing in almost all of our
(07:30):
cities and towns, various clubs working for the good of
the race. Whether the immediate aim was literary culture, an orphanage,
an old folks home, the protection of working girls, or
something else similarly noble. Prominent among the pioneers in such
work were Missus Josephine Saint Pierre Ruffin of Boston and
(07:51):
Missus John T. Cook of Washington, d C. No one
can record exactly how much has been accomplished by these organizations.
In fact, the clubs range all the way in effectiveness,
from one that is a dominating force in its town
to one that is struggling to get started. The result
of the work, however, would be in any case sum
(08:14):
up with an astonishing total. A report from Illinois fairly
representative of the stronger work mentioned the following activities. The
k Row Hospital fostered and under the supervision of the
Yates Club of kro The Anna Field Home for Girls, Peoria, Lincoln,
Old Folks and Orphans Home founded by Missus Eva Munroe
(08:37):
and assisted by the Women's Club of Springfield. The Home
for Aged and Infirm Colored People Chicago, founded by Missus
Gabrella Smith and others. The Amanda Smith Orphans Home, Harvey,
the Phyllis Wheatley Home for Wage Earning Girls of Chicago.
In Alabama. The State Federation of Colored Women's Clubs has
(08:59):
established and is supporting a reformatory at Mount Meigs for
Negro boys, and the women are very enthusiastic about the work.
A beautiful and well ordered home for Negro girls was
established a few years ago in Virginia of the White
Rose Mission of New York. We are told that it
has done much good. A large number of needy ones
(09:21):
have found shelter within its doors and have been able
to secure work of all kinds. This club has a
committee to meet the incoming steamers from the South and
see that young women entering the city of strangers are
directed to proper homes. All such work is touching in
its tenderness and effectiveness. The National Association of Colored Women's
(09:44):
Clubs was founded in eighteen ninety six. The organization has
become stronger and stronger, until it is now a powerful
and defective one with hundreds of members. One of its
recent activities has been the purchase of the home of
Frederick Douglas at Anacostia d c. In education, church life,
(10:04):
and missions special forms of social service, we have only
to look around us to see what the Negro woman
is accomplishing. Not only is she bearing the brunt of
common school education for the race. In more than one instance,
a strong character moved to do something has started on
a career of success. A good secondary or industrial school
(10:27):
representative are the Vorhees Normal and Industrial School at Denmark,
South Carolina, founded by Elizabeth C. Wright, the Daytona Normal
and Industrial Institute for Negro girls founded by missus M. M. Bethoone,
and the Mount Meigs Institute Mount Maigs, Alabama, founded by
Miss Cornelia Bowen. Noteworthy for its special missionary emphasis is
(10:51):
the National Training School of Washington, of which Miss Nanny H.
Burrows is the head. One of the most important recent
developments and education has been the appointment of a number
of young women as supervisors in county schools under the
terms of the will of Annate Genes, a Quaker lady
of Philadelphia who left a considerable sum of money for
(11:14):
the improvement of the rural schools of the South. In
church work, we all know the extent to which women
have had to bear the burden not only of the
regular activities, but also of the numerous rallies that still
so unfortunately afflict our churches. Deserving of special mention in
connection with social service is the work of those who
(11:35):
have labored under the auspices of the Young Women's Christian Association,
which has done so much for the moral well being
of the Great Camps in the war. In foreign mission work.
One of the educational institutions sustained primarily by Northern Baptist agencies,
Spelman's seminary stands out with distinct prominence, not only as
(11:57):
Spelman sent to Africa of her daughters from this country,
the first one being Nora Gordon in eighteen eighty nine.
She has also educated several who have come to her
from Africa, the first being Lena Clark. And for these
the hope has ever been that they would return to
their own country for their largest and most mature service.
(12:19):
In the realm of business, the Negro woman has stood
side by side with their husband in the rise to
higher things. In almost every instance in which a man
has prospered, investigation will show that his advance was very
largely due to the faith, the patience, and the untiring
effort of his wife. Doctor B. T. Washington, in his
(12:41):
book The Negro in Business, gave several examples. One of
the outstanding instances was in the story of Junius G. Groves,
famous potato grower of Edwardsville, Kansas. This man moved from
his original home in Kentucky to Kansas at the time
of the well known Exodus of aiighteen seventy nine, a
(13:01):
migration movement which was even more voluntary on the part
of the Negro than the recent removal to the north
on the part of so many, this latter movement being
in so many ways a result of war conditions. Mister Groves,
in course of time, became a man of large responsibilities
and means. It is most interesting, however, to go back
(13:23):
to his early days of struggle. We read as follows.
Soon after getting the crop planet, mister Groves decided to marry.
When he reached this decision, he had but seventy five
cents in cash and had to borrow enough to satisfy
the demands of the law. But he knew well the
worth and common sense of the woman he was to marry.
(13:45):
She was as poor and worldly goods as himself, but
their poverty did not discourage them in their plans. During
the whole season, they worked with never tiring energy early
and late, with the result that when the crop had
been harvested and all debts paid, they had cleared one
hundred twenty five dollars. Notwithstanding their lack of many necessaries
(14:06):
of life, to say nothing of comforts, they decided to
invest fifty dollars of their earnings in a lot in
Kansas City, Kansas. They paid twenty five dollars for a
milk cow and kept the remaining fifty dollars to be
used in the making of another crop. In the course
of a few years, mister Groves, with the help of
(14:26):
his wife, now the mother of a large family, gathered
in one year hundreds of thousands of bushels of white potatoes,
surpassing all other growers in the world. Similarly was the
success of E. C. Barry, a hotel keeper of Athens, Ohio,
due to his wife. At night, after his guests had
fallen asleep, it was his custom to go around and
(14:49):
gather up their clothes and take them to his wife,
who would add buttons which were lacking repair, rents, and
press the garments, after which mister Barry would replace them
in the guests rooms. Guests who had received such treatment
returned again and brought their friends with them. In course
of time, mister and missus Barry came to own the
(15:10):
leading hotel in Athens, one of fifty rooms, and of
special favor with commercial travelers. Such examples could be multiplied indefinitely.
It is not only in such spheres that the worth
of the Negro woman has been shown, however, daily, in
thousands of homes, in little stores and on humble farms,
effort just as heroic has been exerted, though the result
(15:34):
is not always so evident on their own initiative. Also,
women are now engaging in large enterprises. The most conspicuous
example of material success is undoubtedly Mademoiselle C. J. Walker
of the Mademoiselle C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company of Indianapolis
and New York, a business that is now conducted on
(15:56):
a large scale and in accordance with the best business
methods of America. Important also in this connection is the
very great contribution that Negro women, very often those without
education and opportunity, are making in the ordinary industrial life
of the country. According to the census of nineteen ten,
(16:17):
one million, forty seven thousand, one hundred forty six, or
fifty two percent of those at work were either farmers
or farm labors, and twenty eight percent more were either
cooks or washerwomen. In other words, a total of exactly
eighty percent were doing some of the hardest and at
the same time some of the most necessary work in
(16:40):
our home and industrial life. These are workers whose worth
has never been fully appreciated by the larger public, and
who needed the heavy demands of the Great War to
call attention to the actual value of the service they
were rendering. The changes in fact brought about within the
last few years, largely as a result of war conditions,
(17:01):
are remarkable. As Mary E. Jackson, writing in The Crisis,
has said, Indiana reports Negro women in glass works in Ohio.
They are found on the night shifts of glass works.
They have gone into the pottery works in Virginia, woodworking
plants and lumber yards have called for their help in Tennessee.
(17:22):
She also quotes Rachel S. Gallagher of Cleveland, Ohio, as
saying of the Negro women in that city, we find
them on power sewing machines, making caps, wastes, bags and mops.
We find them doing pressing and various hand operations in
these same shops. They are employed in knitting factories as winders.
(17:42):
In a number of laundries, on mangles of every type,
and in sorting and marking. They are in paper box factories,
doing both hand and machine work, in button factories, on
the button machines, in packing houses, packing meat in railroad yards,
wiping and cleaning engines, and doing sorting in railroad shops.
(18:03):
One of our workers recently found two colored girls on
a nodding machine in a bed spring factory, putting the
knots in the wire springs. In the professions such as
medicine and law, and in scholarship as well, the negro
woman has blazed a path one year after Oberlin College
in Ohio was founded in eighteen thirty three, thirty years
(18:26):
before the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation, the trustees took
the advanced ground of admitting Negro men and women on
equal terms with other students of the northern colleges and universities.
Oberlin still leads in the number of its Negro women graduates,
but in recent years other such institutions as Radcliffe, Wellesley,
(18:48):
Columbia and Chicago have been represented in an increasing number
by those who have finished their work credibly and even
with distinction in many instances. More and more each year
are young women at these institutions going forward to the
attainment of the higher scholastic degrees. In connection with medicine,
(19:08):
we recall the work in the war of the Negro
woman in the related profession of nursing. It was only
after considerable discussion that she was given a genuine opportunity
in red cross work. But she at once vindicated herself.
In the legal profession, she has not only been admitted
to practice in various places, but has also been appointed
(19:30):
to public office. It must be understood that such positions
as those just remarked are not secured without a struggle.
But all told, they indicate that the race, through its womanhood,
is more and more taking part in the general life
of the country. In keeping with the romantic quality of
the race, it was but natural that from the first
(19:52):
there should have been special effort at self expression in literature, music,
and other forms of art. The first Negro woman to
strike the public imagination was Phyllis Wheatley, who, even as
a young girl wrote acceptable verse. Her poems on various subjects,
published in seventeen seventy three, at once attracted attention, and
(20:14):
it was fitting that the first Negro woman to become
distinguished in America should be one of outstanding piety and
nobility of soul. Just a few years before the Civil War,
Francis Ellen Watkins, better known as Missus F. E. W. Harper,
entered upon her career as a writer of popular poetry.
(20:34):
At the present time, attention centers especially upon Missus Georgia
Douglas Johnson, who early in nineteen eighteen produced In the
Heart of a Woman, a little volume of delicate and
poignantly beautiful verse, and from whom greater and greater things
are expected, as she not only has the temperament of
(20:55):
an artist, but has also undergone a period of severe
training in her chosen field. In the wider field of prose,
including especially stories, essays, and sketches, Missus Alice Moore Dunbar
Nelson is prominent. In eighteen ninety nine she produced The
Goodness of Saint Roque and other stories, and since then
(21:16):
has continued her good work in various ways. The whole
field of literature is a wide one, one naturally appealing
to many of the younger women, and one that, with
all its difficulties and lack of financial return, does offer
some genuine reward to the candidate who is willing to
work hard and who does not seek a short cut
(21:38):
to fame. In music, the race has produced more women
of distinction than in any other field. This was natural,
for the Negro voice is world famous. The pity is
that all too frequently some of the most capable young
women have not had the means to cultivate their talents,
and hence have fallen by the wayside. Some day, it
(21:59):
is to be hoped that a great philanthropist will endow
a real conservatory at which such persons may find some
genuine opportunity and encouragement in their development in their days
of struggle. In spite of all the difficulties, however, there
have been singers who have risen to very high things
in their art. Even before the Civil War, the race
(22:22):
produced one of the first rank in Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield,
who came into prominence in eighteen fifty one. This artist,
born in Mississippi, was taken to Philadelphia and there cared
for by a Quaker lady. The young woman did not
soon reveal her gift to her friend, thinking that it
might be frowned upon as something too worldly. Her guardian
(22:45):
learned of it by accident however, and one day surprised
her by asking, Elizabeth, is it true that THEE can sing? Yes,
replied the young woman, in confusion, let me hear thee,
and Elizabeth sang, and her friend, realizing that she had
a voice of the first quality, proceeded to give her
the best instruction that it was possible to get. Elizabeth
(23:07):
Taylor Greenfield had a marvelous voice, embracing twenty seven notes,
reaching from the sonorous bass of a baritone to the
highest soprano. A voice with a range of more than
three octaves naturally attracted much attention in both England and America,
and comparisons with Jenny Lynn, then at the height of
(23:29):
her great fame, were frequent. In the next generation arose
Madame Selika, a cultured singer of the first rank, and
one who, by her arius and operatic work generally as
well as by her mastery of language, won great success
on the continent of Europe, as well as in England
and America. The careers of some later singers are so
(23:52):
recent as to be still fresh in the public memory. Some,
in fact, may still be heard. It was in eighteen
eighty seven that Flora Batson entered on the period of
her greatest success, she was a ballad singer, and her
work at its best was of the sort that sends
an audience into the wildest enthusiasm. In a series of
(24:12):
temperance meetings in New York, she sang for ninety consecutive nights,
with never failing effect one song six feet of Earth
Make Us All One size. Her voice exhibited a compass
of three octaves, but even more important than its range
was its remarkable sympathetic quality. Early in the last decade
(24:33):
of the century appeared also Missus Cissioretta Jones, whose voice
at once commanded attention as one of unusual richness and volume,
and as one exhibiting especially the plaintive quality ever present
in the typical Negro voice. At the present time, there
are several promising singers, and there are also those who,
(24:55):
in various ways, are working for the general advancement of
the race. In music. Missus e Azalia Hackley, for some
years prominent as a concert soprano, has recently given her time,
most largely to the work of teaching and showing the
capabilities of the Negro voice, possessed of a splendid musical temperament.
(25:16):
She has enjoyed the benefit of three years of foreign
study and generally inspired many younger singers or performers. Prominent
among many excellent pianists is Missus Hazel Harrison Anderson, who
also has studied much abroad and has appeared in many
noteworthy recitals. Missus Maud Cooney Hare of Boston, a concert pianist,
(25:39):
has within the last few years given several excellent lecture
recitals dealing with Afro American music. As between painting and sculpture,
the women of the race have shown a decided preference
for sculpture. While there are some students of promise, no
woman has as yet achieved distinction on work of really
(25:59):
professional quo. In the realm of painting. On the other hand,
there have been three or four sculptors of genuine merit.
As early as eighteen sixty five at Monia Lewis began
to attract attention by her busts of prominent people. Within
the last few years, the work of Missus May Howard
(26:19):
Jackson of Washington has attracted the attention of the discerning,
and that of Missus Meta Warwick Fuller is reserved for
special comment. Any such review as this naturally has its limitations.
We can indicate only a few of the outstanding individuals
here and there at least enough has been said, however,
(26:39):
to show that the Negro woman is making her way
at last into every phase of noble endeavor. In the
pages that follow, we shall attempt to set forth, at
somewhat greater length, the life and work of a few
of those whose achievement has been most signal, and whose
interest in their sisters has been unfailing. End of Chapter one,
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