Colored girls and boys' inspiring United States history / and a heart to heart talk about white folks

by William Henry Harrison

IN no surroundings of childhood, except the home life, is there a more suitable or fruitful place in which to spiritually nourish and grow up Colored youths than in the forty-six thousand or more Colored Sunday Schools where over two million boys and girls are regularly having impressed upon their tender and open minds the religious teachings of the Bible.

As a step toward further broadening the Sunday School work among American Colored children and at the same time enabling them to get better teachings about the Christian religion, The International Sunday School Association began in 1911 to organize classes for specially training Sunday School teachers among the young men and women attending Colored colleges and large schools. Many white friends to the Race became interested in this good movement, especially Mr. W. N. Hartshorn of Boston, Mass., who gave of his own personal money $15,000 to pay the expenses of a fair trial of the work. This Christian effort has aroused so much interest and has grown so rapidly that at present upward of two hundred Colored universities, colleges and large schools have accepted and given this Sunday School Teachers’ Course a regular place in their class room studies.

Some of the foremost religious leaders who are helping to direct and carry on this much needed work among American Colored children are Bishop Geo. W. Clinton and Dr. R. H. Boyd, both life members of the International Sunday School Association; Prof. Wm. B. Matthews, member of the Executive Committee of the above association, Dr. H. G. Lyman, Supt. of work among Colored people, and Mr. M. L. Finckel, President of the American Sunday School Union. (Ref.: Work’s Negro Year Book, 1918-1919 edition, pgs. 1-257-8).

THE YOUNG WOMEN’S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION
The Girl Reserve

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.”