Nannie Helen Burroughs, (May 2, 1879 – May 20, 1961) was an African American educator, orator, religious leader, and businesswoman.[1] She gained national recognition for her 1900 speech "How the Sisters Are Hindered from Helping," at the National Baptist Convention. In 1896, Burroughs helped establish the National Association of Colored Women (NACW). In 1897, Burroughs started work as an associate editor at the Christian Banner in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[1]
In 1900, Burroughs moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to work as a secretary for the Foreign Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention. This was the national association of black Baptist churches. After the American Civil War, black congregations quickly withdrew from white-dominated churches to create churches independent of white supervision. They had a few at that time, but soon had many more. Within several years, they were setting up state Baptist associations and, by the end of the 19th century, national associations. This is still the largest black Baptist denomination.
In 1909, Burroughs founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, D.C. After her death, in 1976 it was renamed the Nannie Helen Burroughs School in her honor, and has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The school emphasized preparing students for employment. Burroughs offered courses in domestic science and secretarial skills, but also in unconventional occupations such as shoe repair, barbering, and gardening. Burroughs created a creed of racial self-help through her program of the three Bs: the Bible, the bath, and the broom. The Bible, the bath, and the broom stood for a clean life, a clean body, and a clean house.[2]
Burroughs believed domestic work should be professionalized and unionized. She trained her students to be respectable employees by becoming pious, pure, and domestic She founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, DC in 1909. It has since been renamed the Nannie Helen Burroughs School in her honor and provides education for the elementary grades.
, but not submissive. She emphasized the importance of being proud black women to all students, by teaching African-American history and culture through a required course in the Department of Negro History.[3] She became active in the National League of Republican Colored Women, and the National Association of Wage Earners, working to influence legislation related to wages for domestic workers and other positions held by women.[4]
In 1931, the Herbert Hoover administration appointed her as committee chairwomen concerning Negro Housing, for his White House Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership. This was in the early years of the Great Depression.[5]
Burroughs died in Washington, D.C. on May 20, 1961.
Info compiled from Wikipedia. More
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