One of the interesting meetings for the coming month will be that of the National Association of Colored Women, which will be held in Baltimore, Md., August 6th to 11th inclusive, opening on Sunday, August 6th, with a platform meeting.
The ninth biennial session of the Association was held in Wilberforce, Ohio, in August, 1914, during which session invitations were extended to them from four cities for the 1916 session—Washington, D. C., Tuskegee, Ala., Kansas City, Mo., and Baltimore, Md. Hon. James Preston, mayor of the latter city, cordially invited them, by long distance telephone, to meet in his city, and Baltimore was the place selected for the meeting this year.
The National Association of Colored Women was organized in Washington, D. C., in July, 1896. It is a consolidation of the National League and the National Federation of Colored Women. This organization was incorporated in 1904. The present officers are:
- Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee, Ala., president.
- Mrs. Mary V. Talbert, Buffalo, N. Y., vice-president.
- Miss Ida R. Cummings, Baltimore, Md., secretary.
- Mrs. Ida Joyce Jackson, Columbus, O., treasurer.
- Mrs. Elizabeth Lindsay Davis, Chicago, Ill., national organizer.
These women are working constantly, yet quietly, for the betterment of the race. They are urging more modesty in dress, especially among our younger women, because the modern bizarre styles attract undue attention. It is a well known fact that our men do not always show as much respect for our women as they should; it is not an uncommon thing to walk into a crowded car and see all the men seated, and the women standing; some of them are old women, too. Frequently, in the larger cities, audible comments are passed upon the women as they pass down the streets,—all these things show a lack of respect. Possibly some of it is thoughtlessness, but it is none the less annoying; that is why the women of the National Association are urging our men to show more respect for womankind.
A number of resolutions adopted at the last biennial session, held at Wilberforce in 1914, show that they are trying to live up to their motto, “Lifting as we climb,” by lifting the moral status of the race. They endorse National Constitutional Prohibition because it will save not only our present race, but posterity, from the consequences of alcohol. Statistics show that more colored people die of tuberculosis and other filth diseases every year than any other race. These women are working for better living conditions for colored people, more sanitary homes and more modern conveniences to prevent the spread of the White Plague among our people.
For the betterment of conditions in general, and to reach the individual as well as the masses, this association places the work into the hands of the women in charge of the various departments, some of which are: Social Service, Young Women’s Work, Domestic Science, Suffrage, Mothers’, Rescue, Humane, Kindergarten, Business, Juvenile Court, Civics and Forestry, Religious Work, Health and Hygiene, Children, Charities, Temperance, Rural and Railway Conditions, and Educational. Through these departments they are able to do very effective work.
The State of Illinois will be well represented at the sessions this year. There will be fifty or sixty delegates from Chicago alone, and they will take a special car. The state is to be represented by six delegates from four leading cities. Mrs. Theresa G. Macon and Mrs. C. M. West will represent Chicago; Mrs. S. B. Jones and Mrs. Carrie Lee Hamilton, Peoria; Mrs. Eva Monroe, Springfield, and Mrs. J. C. McClain, Rock Island. There will be four numbers on the program from Illinois. Mrs. Joanna Snowden Porter will talk on “The City Child.” There could hardly have been any one chosen to talk on this subject who is better able to do so, as this woman’s work as trained nurse takes her all over Chicago, and she comes in contact with the city child of all classes. Mrs. Eva Monroe will tell how we can best improve our clubs. Mrs. Theresa G. Macon, state president, will report on the work accomplished during the past two years by the clubs in the State of Illinois. Dr. Mary Fitzbutler-Waring, the national chairman of health and hygiene, will talk on sanitation.
About two hundred members of the various clubs in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin attended the joint meeting in Milwaukee, Wis., on June 9th. Interesting and beneficial talks were given by Miss Grace Wilson, policewoman at the State Training School for Girls; Mme. Victoria Clay-Haley of St. Louis, Mo., assistant secretary of Civic Conditions; Mrs. Goins, chairman of Civic Conditions; Mrs. Perry Williams of Milwaukee, Wis.; Mrs. Lou Ella Young, the corresponding secretary, and many others.
Katherine E. Williams.