Women of Achievement: Written for the Fireside SchoolsBrawley, Benjamin Griffith
History
Women of Achievement: Written for the Fireside Schools
Brawley, Benjamin Griffith
African American women -- Biography; Women -- Biography
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 woman in general were frequently discussed on
the 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, though it has been practically impossible for any
one to equal the native force and wit of Sojourner Truth. Outstanding in
recent years have been Mrs. Booker T. Washington and Mrs. 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 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 Mrs.
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, of Boston, and Mrs. 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 in any case sum up with an astonishing total. A report from
Illinois, fairly representative of the stronger work, mentioned the
following activities: "The Cairo hospital, fostered and under the
supervision of the Yates Club of Cairo; the Anna Field Home for Girls,
Peoria; Lincoln Old Folks' and Orphans' Home, founded by Mrs. Eva Monroe
and assisted by the Women's Club of Springfield; the Home for Aged and
Infirm Colored People, Chicago, founded by Mrs. Gabrella Smith and
others; the Amanda Smith Orphans' Home, Harvey; the Phillis Wheatley
Home for Wage-Earning Girls, of Chicago." In Alabama the State
Federation of Colored Women's Clubs has established and is supporting a
reformatory at Mt. 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 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 as strangers are directed to proper homes." All such work is
touching in its tenderness and effectiveness. The National Association
of Colored Women's Clubs was founded in 1896. The organization has
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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