Black Womanhood United

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Black Womanhood United

The Collective Identity of the Women in the National Association of Colored Women in its Formative Years, 1896-1906

Ma History Today LGX999M20 - Master Thesis

Name: Sara Meijboom

Student Number: S2558750

Address: Oosterhamrikkade 82-1, 9714 BH, Groningen

Phone Number: +31 6 10702669

Thesis Supervisor: Prof. Dr. C. W. Bosch

Date: June 29, 2019

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Introduction

In 1895, the President of the Missouri Press Association James W. Jacks published an open letter in which he stated that: ‘The Negroes of this country are wholly devoid of morality … the women are prostitutes and are natural thieves and liars.’1 His statement combined the racist and sexist accusations African American women had endured since the establishment of the institute of slavery and reinforced stereotypes of black women’s morality and sexuality.2_{White public}

opinion stereotyped African American women as highly sexual beings, whereas white women were depicted as pure and chaste, and as the exemplars of female morality.3 The African American civil rights leader Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin thought action had to be undertaken against the stereotyping of African American women’s moral character and called upon African American women to attend a national convention to address those stereotypes. The organization of such conventions eventually led to the establishment of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) in 1896 by among others the reformers Mary Church Terrell, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper.4

The first known African American women’s association was the Female Benevolent Society of St. Thomas in Philadelphia established in 1793, which was a mutual aid society. This marked the start of the organization of many such societies, because in 1830 in Philadelphia alone there were around thirty of those mutual aid societies. African American women were also leading in establishing anti-slavery societies from 1832 until the abolition of slavery in the United States. In the thirties of the nineteenth century they were active in literary clubs as well, clubs dedicated to church work, and after emancipation in associations which focused on taking care of freed slaves.5 Although African American women had a tradition of club work dating back to the eighteenth century, it is the end of the nineteenth century that came to be known for the black women’s club’s movement.6_{Black women created local clubs since the eighties of}

the nineteenth century addressing certain issues, such as child welfare and racist laws, focusing

1_{Quote recorded in Gerda Lerner, Black Women in white America: A Documentary History (New York: Vintage}

Books, 1973), 436.

2_{In this thesis I will use the terms ‘African American’ and ‘black’ interchangeably. These terms are nowadays}

the most acceptable and therefore the most appropriate to use in this thesis.

3_{Cheryl Nelson Butler, "Blackness as Delinquency," Washington University Law Review 90, no. 5 (2013),}

1342; Anne Firor Scott, "Most Invisible of All: Black Women's Voluntary Associations," The Journal of

Southern History 56, no. 1 (February 1990): 9-10.

4_{Butler, "Blackness as Delinquency," 1343.}

5_{Scott, "Most Invisible of All: Black Women's Voluntary Associations," 6-9.}

6_{Paula Giddings, When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America, (New}

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on social and political reform.7 The establishment of the NACW in 1896 was unique within this context, because it was the first large-scale association of African American women which was organized at the national level.8

The creation of the NACW at the end of the nineteenth century fits within the context of the larger woman’s club movement of that time. This was a social movement predominantly led by white, protestant, middle-class women who were relatively well-educated. Jewish, black, catholic, and working women did also participate in this movement. The clubs of this movement focused mainly on community work, through the creation of orphanages and libraries, or on self-improvement through the study of literature or art. The limited opportunities of women in higher education was also a point of focus.9 When this thesis uses the term clubwoman it refers to a woman who was a participant in this club movement. Black women contributed to this movement mainly through the creation of local clubs, but with the NACW the first nationwide organization of black women was a fact.

At the end of the nineteenth century, black clubwomen felt the urgency to organize themselves into a national association, which was particularly organized for and by black women. This thesis will examine why these women felt this need. The letter of Jacks prompted African American women to organize the NACW, but this was not their prime motive. Already before this letter was published the wish for a national organization had been expressed by the founders of the NACW.10 The underlying causes for African American women to organize on the national level in the NACW have hardly received any attention in scholarship on the NACW, and where they are discussed, scholars disagree. A large part of the literature on the NACW is focused on the structure of their organization and their legal work, especially on child and social welfare.11 These works barely concentrate on black women’s reason of national organization at the end of the late nineteenth century.

7_{Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850-1920 (Bloomington and}

Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1998), 81.

8_{The National Federation of Afro-American Women (NFAAW) and the Colored Women’s League of}

Washington D.C. (NLCW) predated the NACW. Both organizations existed for a short period of time and represented together fourteen states. The NACW was established when the NFAAW merged with the NLCW in 1896. In chapter one more information on the nature of the organization of the NACW is provided.

9_{Joyce Appleby, Eileen K. Cheng, Joanna L. Goodwin, eds., Encyclopedia of Women in American History,}

Volume I-III (London: Routledge, 2015), 455-456.

10_{Butler, "Blackness as Delinquency," 1343; Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, "Address of Josephine St. P. Ruffin,}

President of Conference," Woman’s Era II, no. 5 (1895): 13; Lavonne Jackson Leslie, The History of the

National Association of Colored Women's Clubs: A Legacy of Service (Xlibris Collection, 2012), 32.

11_{See for example: Cheryl Nelson Butler, "Blackness as Delinquency," Washington University Law Review 90,}

no. 5 (2013), 1335-1397; Susan D. Carle, Defining the Struggle: National Racial Justice Organizing, 1880-1915 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013); Lavonne Jackson Leslie, The History of the National Association of

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Furthermore, there are books that deal with the beginning years of the NACW but are not entirely dedicated to research on the organization.12 Historian Paula Giddings, for example, examined the ways African American women have initiated social and political reforms, despite the forces of racism and sexism working against them in the nineteenth and twentieth century. Giddings also extended this focus to the NACW. Besides examining the background of the founding women of the NACW, she mainly saw defending black women’s name, morality, and sexuality as the reason for the organization, when she asserted: ‘The lesson that the Black women were trying to impart was that color, class, or the experience of slavery, did not nullify the moral strength of true womanhood.’13_{Similarly, historian Deborah Gray White focused on}

the same time period and explored how black women resisted and fought against racism and sexism. Additionally, she focused on the gender and racial identities of the women, also in relation to black men and white women. She additionally asserted that women wanted to defend their name, but also highlighted the importance of the NACW in the process of nation-making by black people. She concluded: ‘The National Association of Colored Women was their watchdog, and their defender across the nation.’14_{Giddings and White placed the NACW in a}

larger context of black women’s working for reforms, and against racism and sexism. They both highlighted that the NACW was organized as a way to defend the character of black women, but they did not build an argument around that assertion.

The African American historian Rosalyn Terborg-Penn suggested that the establishment of the NACW took place because after emancipation there was a new generation of African American women who were educated and therefore suitable for leadership roles. Furthermore, mainstream clubs, focused on for example suffrage, became more exclusive at the end of the

Footnotes continued:

Women and Child Welfare: Lessons for Modern Reform," Faculty Scholarship, Paper 581 (2005): 957-972; Stephanie J. Shaw, "Black Club Women and the Creation of the National Association of Colored Women," in

We Specialize in the Wholly Impossible: A Reader in Black Women's History, ed. Darlene Clark Hine, Wilma

King and Linda Reed (Brooklyn: Carlson Publications, 1995), 433; Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, "African American Women and the Woman Suffrage Movement," in One Woman, One Vote. Rediscovering the Woman Suffrage

Movement, ed. Marjorie Spruill Wheeler (NewSage Press, 1995), 135-156; Rosalyn Terborg-Penn, African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850-1920 (Indiana University Press: Bloomington and

Indianapolis, 1998).

12_{Another example is the work of historian Dorothy Salem, who placed the reform work of black women in the}

larger context of the progressive era. She dedicated one chapter to the NACW and linked it to the woman’s club movement of that time. Within that movement, which consisted mainly of white women’s clubs, Salem

highlighted the special place of the NACW because of the member’s racial identity which influenced their perspective on women’s issues. She does however not pay attention to the possible reasons of organization of the NACW. See: Dorothy Salem, To Better Our World: Black Women in Organized Reform, 1890-1920, volume 14 of Black Women in United States History, ed. Darlene Clarke Hine (New York: Carlson Publishing Inc, 1990), 1, 29.

13_{Paula Giddings, When and Where I Enter, 84.}

14_{Deborah Gray White, Too Heavy a Load: Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994 (W. W. Norton,}

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nineteenth century. She also points at the rationale of African American women, which started to reflect specific needs of African American women.15 The black feminist Angela Davis indicates that heightened racism, sexism, and the solidification of white supremacy at the end of the nineteenth century gave African American women the incentive to organize the NACW.16 Indeed, most scholars see the period that came to be known as ‘the Nadir’, which encompasses the period from the end of the Reconstruction in 1877 up until the early twentieth century which was characterized by increased racism, the loss of civil rights for African Americans, segregation, and lynchings, as the main reason for the organization of the NACW.17 Although Terborg-Penn and Davis made suggestions for the reasons of the NACW’s organization, they did not explore those reasons further in their works.

Historian Stephanie J. Shaw has argued that the tradition of African Americans organizing themselves to address issues in their community was the reason the NACW was established. The establishment of the NACW fitted within this tradition of self-help and community development. The tradition furthermore predated the Nadir. In the opinion of Shaw, the Nadir could therefore not have been the reason for the organization of the NACW, because the activities of African American women in their previous club work was no different from their activities in the NACW and therefore ‘did not mark the beginning of the important organized work of black women against racism and sexism.’18 I argue that Shaw dismisses some important causes to the creation of the NACW, mainly because she overlooks the reasons why African American women felt the need in 1890s to organize on the national level. This was a new development in the organizing tradition of African American women.

Thus, literature on the NACW mainly focused on the organization in a larger context, only made suggestions for black women’s reasons of organization, or provided motives that overlooked certain new developments within the organization tradition of black women. Furthermore, the body of literature on the Association did not take into account the collective identity of the women of the NACW. The NACW was namely an organization by and for black women. Then, why did these black women feel the need to organize in a national organization that was established particularly for black women? In this thesis, therefore, I will examine the possible reasons for the establishment of the NACW with a focus on the collective identity of its members. The question that is central to this thesis is the following: Why did African

15_{Terborg-Penn, "African American Women and the Woman Suffrage Movement," 136, 142-143, 146.} 16_{Angela Y. Davis, Women, Race and Class (New York: Vintage Books, 1982), 115-128.}

17_{Shaw, "Black Club Women and the Creation of the National Association of Colored Women," 433.} 18_{Idem, 433-434.}

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American women organize themselves in a national organization specifically targeted at African American women in 1896? As a way to provide an answer to this question, the thesis used the book Worlds of Women: The Making of an International Women's Movement of historian Leila J. Rupp. Rupp examined how the international movement of women from the late nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century formed an international feminist identity. As this book focuses on the collective identity of a women’s movement, the structure and theories employed can also serve this thesis well. Therefore, the structure and theories of Worlds of Women are utilized with regard to the NACW in this thesis.

The definition of collective identity used in Rupp’s book is the definition coined by sociologists Verta Taylor and Nancy Whittier. They define collective identity as: ‘The shared definition of a group that derives from members’ common interests, experiences, and solidarity.’19_{Furthermore, the creation of a collective identity is based on three formation}

processes, namely: the politicization of daily life, which, for example, is embodied in symbols, the creation of the boundaries that mark off a group, and the development of the group’s consciousness which influences its interests.20_{An organization, such as the NACW, needs to}

cultivate a collective identity, because, in Rupp’s words: ‘People do not bring ready-made identities – gendered, racial, sexual, or national, for instance – to collective action.’21 In the case of African American women, they needed to respond to an identity that was already ascribed to them by society based on racial formation and the construction of sexual stereotypes. The letter of Jacks was only an example of this. Black women were clustered as a group and had certain characteristics attributed to them. The collective identity of the NACW was therefore twofold: the clubwomen tried to refute the identity that was given to them and tried to forge an identity that they wanted American society to see. In a chapter included in a handbook on U.S. women’s social movement activism, Whittier has put forth the view that the formation of a collective identity by a group can be, in itself, a goal.22 By presenting themselves as respectable women, a tactic historian Evelyn Higginbotham has coined respectability politics, the clubwomen of the

19_{Quote from Verta Taylor and Nancy Whittier, "Collective identity in social movement communities: Lesbian}

feminist mobilization, in Frontiers in Social Movement Theory, eds. A.D. Morris and C.M. Mueller (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 105 recorded in Leila J. Rupp, Worlds of Women: The Making of an

International Women’s Movement (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 7.

20_{Leila J. Rupp, Worlds of Women: The Making of an International Women’s Movement (Princeton: Princeton}

University Press, 1997), 7.

21_{Leila J. Rupp and Verta Taylor, "Forging Feminist Identity in an International Movement: A Collective}

Identity Approach to Twentieth-Century Feminism," Signs 24, no. 2 (Winter 1999): 365.

22_{Nancy Whittier, "Identity Politics, Consciousness-Raising, and Visibility Politics," in The Oxford Handbook of}

U.S. Women’s Social Movement Activism, ed. Holly J. McCammon et al (New York: Oxford University Press,

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NACW tried to create a positive image of black womanhood.23 For the members of the NACW, the formation of a collective identity was a way to refute the negative public image American society had of them.

Another theory that is especially relevant to the collective identity of black women is the intersectionality theory derived from the school of thought of black feminism. Black feminist Kimberlé Crenshaw has coined this theory, which entails that the experience of black women is based on them being black and being female, and that those two experiences cannot be regarded separate from each other. In many cases they even reinforce each other.24 Black women did not experience racism and sexism on separate occasions, but as a single synthesized incident. This thesis employs a black feminist perspective and acknowledges that the sexual and racial identity of black women cannot be separated. To be able to discuss the collective identity of black women in the NACW, it is necessary to clarify certain concepts, such as race. Race is a socially constructed category and American sociologists Michael Omi and Howard Winant have described racial formation as ‘a sociohistorical process by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed and destroyed.’25_{Ultimately, this formation entails that}

certain features are assigned to people categorized as belonging to a particular race.26 The same process appears to be occurring in the case of the formation of sexual stereotypes where specific attributes are ascribed to a specific sex.27 Even though these concepts are social constructs, the categories of race and sex still had significance for black women. Concerning discrimination and oppression, most black women faced this because of their racial and sexual identity. Furthermore, the women of the NACW did use these concepts themselves and also attributed certain qualities to their own race and sex. This is ultimately an expression of the dilemma of difference, where one has to claim difference in order to destroy it.28 The women of the NACW organized around the identity of black women and thereby emphasized their distinct identity,

23_{The politics of respectability mainly plays a role in chapter three. Therefore, the theory is discussed and}

examined to a greater extent in this chapter. See: Evelyn Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent: The Women's

Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press,

1993), 187.

24_{Kimberlé Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of}

antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics," The University of Chicago Legal Forum, no. 1 (1989): 139-168.

25_{Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1990s (New}

York and London: Routledge, 1994), 55-56.

26_{Michele Moody-Adams, "Racism," in A Companion to Applied Ethics, eds. R. G. Frey and Christopher Heath}

Wellman (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), 91.

27_{Ann E. Cudd and Leslie E. Jones, "Sexism," in A Companion to Applied Ethics, eds. R. G. Frey and}

Christopher Heath Wellman (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), 104.

28_{Lata Mani, "Multiple Mediations: Feminist Scholarship in the Age of Multinational Reception," in Feminist}

Theory Reader: Local and Global Perspectives, eds. Carole Ruth McCann and Seung-Kyung Kim (New York:

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but they did this as a way to improve their position and to be included in American society. This thesis acknowledges that race and sex are socially constructed, but still uses these concepts, because the women did relate their identity to these categorizations, and they had significance in the time they were living.

This thesis is divided in three chapters. The division is based on the structure of the book of Rupp. In turn, Rupp utilized Taylor and Whitter’s definition of collective identity for her work’s structure. The division of this thesis is also largely based on the three processes in the forming of a collective identity that Taylor and Whittier distinguished.29 The first chapter of this thesis examines the beginning of the NACW and explores how the organization tried to forge national ties among its members, and construct and sustain a collective identity. The main goal of this chapter is to provide context and background information on the Association. The second chapter looks at the process of marking off the boundaries of the group: who did belong to the NACW and who did not? The chapter explores what boundaries the members of the NACW drew and why they drew them this way. Essentially, what the members envisioned as the differences between them and other social groups will be examined. Finally, the third chapter looks at the consciousness of the clubwomen. As they organized as black women, this chapter will explore what the clubwomen believed to be the experience of black womanhood. Additionally, the chapter examines how the NACW members defined their interests and goals, and how they wanted to achieve them. Throughout this thesis, I will argue that the main reason for the clubwomen to organize in a national association was their regard for public opinion of American society towards black women and, more than that, all African Americans. In my opinion, they utilized the formation of a collective identity as a way to improve their public image and adhered to a form of respectability politics to achieve this. Furthermore, I will argue that the collective identity of the NACW reflected the elitist position of the clubwomen in American society.

Concerning the time period, this thesis is limited to the formation years of the NACW, as the thesis focuses on why black women organized themselves in a national organization in 1896. Therefore, it makes more sense to only explore the starting years of the organization. The thesis primarily focuses on the period from 1896-1906, after two presidents had both served their terms. However, when there are sources and events within the organization that are

29_{Leila Rupp has three sections based on the collective identity definition of Verta Taylor and Nancy Whittier in}

her book. The introductory part of her book focuses on the beginning of the international women’s movement. I have grouped her part on the beginning of the women’s movement together with the section on the politicization of everyday live. The reason for this was considering the content of both chapters it made more sense to combine them and both sections were too short in length to be made into standing alone chapters.

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relevant for answering the research question, the thesis will diverge from this time period. The main sources that will be used to provide an answer to the research question are minutes from conventions of the NACW, articles from the NACW’s own paper, and speeches and writings from the clubwomen on the organization or related topics.30 Primarily, sources are going to be used from the women who played a vital role in the founding and consolidation of the organization, and who did also produce various sources on the NACW. These are, firstly: Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, who called for the conventions that ultimately led to the establishment of the NACW. Next to her, this thesis employs sources from the first two presidents, Mary Church Terrell and Josephine Silone Yates. Clubwoman Fannie Barrier Williams produced extensive materials on the association and Margaret Murray Washington, the third wife of educator Booker T. Washington, from the start, occupied different important functions in the NACW. Again, occasionally, this thesis also takes into account sources from other clubwomen or relevant persons, when it is significant to answering the research question.

African American women are generally excluded from historical scholarship and therefore their role and participation in history is underexposed. Historians examining the histories of women were mainly concerned with the histories of white women. Historians who focused on African American history chiefly researched the history of African American men. The same happened when historians did research on historical associations: the sole focus on the examination of white women’s associations and associations of African American men meant that the participation of African American women was overlooked.31 This thesis is a contribution to the research on the histories of African American women and the organizations they were active in. By exploring the NACW, the voices and roles of African American women in one part of history will be revealed.

30_{Minutes of the NACW’s conventions, the national paper of the NACW, and speeches and writings of Mary}

Church Terrell can be found on her digital archive. From Library of Congress, Mary Church Terrell Papers,

1851-1962. Correspondence between members of the NACW could also have contributed to answering the

research question. However, digital correspondence between the clubwomen during the early years or the Association are not digitally available. Therefore, correspondence will only play a role in this thesis when it is accessible via secondary sources.

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Becoming National: The Making of a Nationwide Association

The first part of this chapter focuses on the period leading up to the establishment of the NACW and on how this organization was created. This part directs attention to the decisions made during the first conventions of this association concerning the government of the association, the membership requirements, and the work of the organization. However, the creation of the NACW is not the whole story. It is also important to establish how the brand-new association tried to secure its continuance after its conception. That is to say, after the Association was established, the women of the NACW had to devise means to create an organization truly national in character. Essentially, the women of the NACW had to find ways to form and maintain a sense of national unity and bond among its members.32 How they wanted to accomplish the construction and sustaining of the NACW’s collective identity will form the second part of this chapter.

Creation of the NACW

In the United States, the end of the nineteenth century was a grim period for African Americans. The historian Rayford Logan referred to it as ‘the nadir of the Negro.’ Similarly, the historian Vann Woodward called this period the ‘Jim Crow Era.’33_{Blacks were disfranchised on a large}

scale, lynchings occurred regularly, and the Plessy versus Ferguson decision in 1896 ruled segregation to be legal with its ‘separate, but equal’ doctrine. The last decade of the nineteenth century saw as a result of these rulings and occurrences the start of widespread and national organization of African Americans.34 The first comprehensive national organization of African Americans was the National Afro-American League in 1890, which later resurfaced as the National Afro-American Council in 1898.35 For African American women, it was the Colored Women’s League of Washington D.C (CWL) established in 1892 which had the ambition to grow out to an organization of national scope.36

The CWL organized in July 1892 with Mrs. Helen Cook as president and had as its main object to improve the condition of black women. Mary Church Terrell, a member of the CWL who would later become the first president of the NACW, stated in an article named "What the

32_{Rupp, Worlds of Women, 11.}

33_{Quotes recorded in Beverly Washington Jones, "Mary Church Terrell and the National Association of Colored}

Women, 1896 to 1901," The Journal of Negro History 67, no. 1 (Spring 1982): 20.

34_{Leslie, The History of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 13.}

35_{The first national organization of blacks I could find was the Colored National Labor Union established in}

1869, but this organization was specifically targeted at the working conditions of African Americans.

36_{This organization would later rename itself the National League of Colored of Women. See: Terborg-Penn,}

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Colored Women’s League Will Do" which appeared in the Afro-American Journal of Fashion in 1893 that: ‘The Colored Women’s League recently organized in Washington had cordially invited women in all parts of the country to unite with it, so that we may have a national organization.’37_{The annual report of the CWL in 1895 reads: ‘The idea of a national}

organization has been embodied in the Woman’s League of Washington from its formation.’38 Before the NACW was organized, the CWL thus already expressed a wish for a national organization.

The desire of the CWL to establish a national organization of colored women’s clubs was a reflection of a general aspiration of African American clubwomen to organize nationally.39 The idea to call a national convention of black women’s club with as purpose to create a national organization had long been a consideration of black women.40 The James W. Jacks letter, which attacked the morality of black women, was a mere catalyst that set the wheels in motion that led to the establishment of a true national organization. The Jacks letter was one of many; the press of the United States attacked the character of black women often to discredit their activities against lynchings.41_{Florence Belgarnie, secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society in}

England, who had an interest in the status of African Americans and was a staunch opponent of the lynchings in the South of the United States, was the recipient of the letter. She held close contacts with activist Ida B. Wells-Barnett, who had made a name of herself based on her anti-lynching actions. Belgarnie sent the letter forward to Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin. It was Ruffin, president and founder of the New Woman’s Era Club in Boston, who then took initiative to organize a national convention after the letter of Jacks had reached her. Ruffin was mainly concerned with the letter’s effects on the public opinion of black women and feared it would enforce a negative image of black women’s morality already present in the minds of many white Americans.42 In two articles in the Woman’s Era, a paper she edited, namely "A Charge To Be Refuted" and "Let Us Confer Together" she directed the attention of black women all over

37_{Quote from Mary Church Terrell, "What the Colored Women’s League Will Do," Afro-American Journal of}

Fashion (May and June 1893) recorded in Leslie, The History of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 29.

38_{Quote from Women’s League, Annual Report, 1895 recorded in Leslie, The History of the National}

Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 29.

39_{Ruffin, "Address of Josephine St. P. Ruffin, President of Conference," 13; Leslie, The History of the National}

Association of Colored Women's, 32.

40_{Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, "A Charge To Be Refuted," Woman’s Era II, no. 3 (1895): 9; Josephine St. Pierre}

Ruffin, "Let Us Confer Together," Woman’s Era II, no. 3 (1895): 8; Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, "Circular Letter," in: Historical Records of Conventions of 1895-1896 of the Colored Women of America (District of Columbia: National Association of Colored Women Clubs, 1902), 4-5.

41_{Joyce A. Hanson, Mary Mcleod Bethune and Black Women’s Political Activism (Colombia: University of}

Missouri Press, 2003), 100.

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America to the letter of Jacks and called upon them to take action. The letter of Jacks was not published in the Era, because Ruffin deemed it too slanderous, but copies were sent to various clubs.43 In the latter article Ruffin stated the following:

The coming together of our women from all over the country for consultation, for conference, for the personal exchange of greeting, which means so much in the way of encouragement and inspiration, has been a burning desire in the breasts of the colored women in every section of the United States. The matter has been discussed and re-discussed. Of some things all are convinced--the need of such a conference is great, the benefit to be derived inevitable and inestimable.44

43_{Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, "Circular Letter," in: Historical Records of Conventions of 1895-1896 of the}

Colored Women of America (1902), 4-5.

44_{Ruffin, "Let Us Confer Together," 8.}

1. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin (1842-1924)

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Although the intention for a national association of colored women’s clubs had long been present among African American women, it was the letter of Jacks that fueled the need of organizing nationally.

The response of black women to the articles of Ruffin was positive. The date for the First National Conference of Colored Women of America was set for the next month on July 29, 30, and 31, and was to take place in Berkeley Hall, Boston, Massachusetts. There were around hundred delegates representing twenty-five clubs and ten states present during the conference.45 Ruffin was presiding the conference and in her opening speech she voiced the hope that the conference would lead to a national organization.46 That it did: after the conference, the delegates established the National Federation of African American Women (NFAAW). Now, however, together with the CWL, there were two organizations national in scope. During the convention of the NFAAW in Washington D.C. on 20, 21 and 22 July 1896 the delegates decided to try and form one organization with the CWL. The CWL had had a conference earlier this month in the same city, so a committee consisting of seven delegates from each organization was easily formed. Terrell presided this committee. She stated on her activities: ‘Thoughtful colored women realized that it would be different, if not impossible, to establish two national bodies on a firm foundation, but they were sure they could make one a brilliant success.’47_{The outcome of the activities of the committee was that during this}

conference the NFAAW and the CWL merged, and by doing so formed the NACW.

The convention determined that the goal of the Association should be the advancement of the conditions of African Americans by mainly improving the public opinion concerning this group. The naming of the new national convention had been decided by the committee and was adopted in the Articles of Agreement, a document which officiated the new association.48 The election of a president for the NACW took some considerable debate and time. Cook was the president of the CWL at the time and Mrs. Margaret Murray Washington, the founder of the Tuskegee Women’s Club, had been elected president of the NFAAW during the convention of 1895 in Boston. Present at the convention were seventy-three delegates from various clubs who had all together a membership of 5,000, so settling on a president was a difficult affair. In the

45_{Jones, "Mary Church Terrell and the National Association of Colored Women, 1896 to 1901," 23.} 46_{Ruffin, "Address of Josephine St. P. Ruffin, President of Conference," 15.}

47_{Mary Church Terrell, "The [16th] Biennial of the National Association of Colored Women," speech (1929).}

From Library of Congress, Mary Church Terrell Papers, 1851-1962,

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/ms009311.mss42549.0442 (accessed April 10, 2019).

48_{"Articles of Agreement," in: Historical Records of Conventions of 1895-96 of the Colored Women of America}

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end, the delegates elected Terrell as the first ever president of the organization.49 Ruffin was elected as second vice-president, Josephine Silone Yates, a teacher and writer, became the fourth vice-president, and Washington was the chair of the executive board.50 These women all had prior experience in club work one way or another.51

49_{More on the discussion regarding the name of the organization is to be found in chapter two, as the subject of}

chapter two is more suitable for the treatment of that discussion. The name of the NACW changed in 1957 to: National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, Incorporated (NACWC).

50_{"Evening Session," in: Historical Records of Conventions of 1895-96 of the Colored Women of America}

(1902), 60-61.

51_{Terrell had already been active in the Colored Women’s League of Washington D.C. Ruffin was a member of}

the New England Women’s Club and helped found both the Woman’s Era Club from Boston and the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA). Washington founded the Tuskegee Woman’s Club and Yates helped to establish the Women's League of Kansas City and became its first president.

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The first convention of the NACW took place on 15, 16, and 17 September 1897 in the Howard Congregational Church in Nashville, Tennessee and sixty-three delegates from twenty-six clubs were present. This convention was mostly preoccupied by forming the constitution of the organization. The constitution affirmed the goal of the NACW to improve the public image of African Americans: ‘We, the Colored Women of the United States of America, feeling the need of united and sympathetic effort, and hoping to furnish evidence of the moral, mental and material progress made by our people, do hereby unite in a National Association.’52 Furthermore, the constitution mainly determined the election of officers, their duties, and the requirements for admission of local clubs to the NACW.53 Here, it was decided that the officers of the NACW consisted of at least a president, a first and second vice president, a recording and corresponding secretary, a ways and means committee and an executive board, which consisted of one member from every state.54_{A president could only serve two terms of two}

years each. Other functions were added during the debates of the convention, such as the editorial staff, a national organizer, national treasurer, and an auditing committee, which checked the treasurer. It was furthermore determined that the NACW would meet in conventions biennially. The membership to the NACW was restricted to clubs which were organized and composed of women. Additionally, clubs should have a membership of at least ten before they were eligible to the NACW and the membership requirement of such a club should not be based on a test.55 The NACW was to take over the clubs which were already affiliated to the NFAAW and CWL, which were respectively 81 and 113 at the time.56

The next convention of the NACW took place in Chicago, Illinois in the Chapel of the A.M.E. Church on August 14, 15, and 16 in 1899. There were 144 delegates present during this convention which represented forty-six clubs and sixteen states.57 The convention consisted of the readings of different papers, addresses, and reports on the activities of the clubs. A large part of the convention was consumed by the election of a new president, which resulted in a conflict. Terrell had been president since 1896, but a large part of the convention argued that she was still eligible for reelection as the constitution of the NACW was only in place since

52_{Quote from NACW, Preamble of the Constitution, 1897 recorded in Leslie, The History of the National}

Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 51.

53_Idem.

54_{National Association of Colored Women, Minutes Convention 1897, 6-7. From Library of Congress, Mary}

Church Terrell Papers, 1851-1962, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/ms009311.mss42549.0298 (accessed April 13,

2019).

55_{Idem, 7-8.}

56_{"Third Day. Morning Session. July 22, 1896," in: Historical Records of Conventions of 1895-96 of the}

Colored Women of America (1902), 53.

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1897, which meant that she had only served one legal term. Delegates accused Terrell of replacing the location of this convention from Indianapolis to Chicago so she could control the election. She was furthermore accused of having worked to exclude Wells-Barnett from the convention by manipulating delegates. The debates ended when Terrell was reelected as president of the NACW. However, Wells-Barnett herself and Ruffin, who had been the major opponent of Terrell during the presidential election, became estranged from the NACW and did not attend conventions for years.58

The NACW held its third biennial convention in Buffalo, New York in 1901 in the Lyric Hall of the Women’s Industrial and Educational Union Building.59_{Terrell opened the}

convention with an address in which she described the progress made by the Association and also informed the delegates that she had secured the membership of the NACW to the National Council of Women in 1900.60_{The National Council consisted of national organizations and its}

affiliated associations. National clubs working to improve women’s issues could affiliate themselves to the National Council. The membership of the NACW to this council was a significant development, as the leadership of the National Council was composed of white women and most white women clubs or organizations excluded black women from their ranks.61 The NACW was, for example, not allowed membership to the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, which also functioned as an overarching organization for women’s clubs. Furthermore, this membership entailed that the National Council officially recognized the NACW. At this same convention, the delegates elected Yates to replace Terrell as president. In turn, Terrell became honorary president of the NACW. Washington was furthermore elected as first vice-president and Ruffin did not occupy a post anymore after this convention, most likely caused by the outcome of the conflicts between her and Terrell during the previous convention.62

The fourth biennial convention of the NACW, was delayed and took place in July 1904 instead of 1903 in St. Louis, Missouri. At this convention, around 200 delegates represented 167 clubs and 23 states.63 Terrell was not present at this convention, because she represented the NACW at the International Congress of Women in Berlin in June 1904. Yates was reelected

58_{White, Too Heavy a Load, 65; Ida B. Barnett, Crusade for Justice: The Autobiography of Ida B.}

Wells-Barnett, ed. Alfreda M. Duster (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1972), 258-260.

59_{Leslie, The History of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 71.} 60_{Idem, 71-72.}

61_{White, Too Heavy a Load, 17.}

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at the convention and would be president of the NACW until 1906.64 Similarly, Washington stayed on as first vice-president. The convention furthermore established departments to carry out the work of the NACW with superintendents at its head, such as temperance, literature, and art. The National Organizer of the NACW reported that the organization had as of now around 15,000 members.65 After this convention, the membership to the NACW continued to grow. In 1905 the organization had 20,000 members and in 1913 this had grown to 50,000.66 Not without having to withstand a blow or punch from time to time, the NACW still exists today extending its line of work across all of the United States.

64_{Yates served two terms of five years in total (1901-1906) as the third biennial should have taken place in 1903}

but was delayed with a year. At the biennial convention of Detroit, Michigan Yates was replaced as president by Lucy Thurman. Washington exchanged her position of first vice-president for the function of the executive board’s chairman. This convention had furthermore no considerable results or announcements. Therefore, it is not discussed in length.

66_{Josephine Silone Yates, "Report of the National Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs," Colored American}

Magazine 8, no. 5 (May 1905): 259; Margaret Murray Washington, "National Association of Colored Women’s

Clubs," National Association Notes 16, no. 6 (June 1913): 5.

4. Josephine Silone Yates (1852-1912) 5. Margaret Murray Washington

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Building a National Connection

The wish for a national organization had perpetuated the minds of black clubwomen at the end of the nineteenth century, but it was with the establishment of the NACW that this wish became a reality. Terrell commented on the national character of the NACW during her first presidential address before the organization during the 1897 convention in Nashville: ‘We have become National, because from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from Maine to the Gulf, we wish to set in motion influences that shall stop the ravages made by practices that sap our strength and preclude the possibility of advancement which under other circumstances could easily be made.’67 Now a national organization had been established, the brand-new NACW had as its task to form a strong national connection between its affiliations. The NACW functioned as an overarching organization for local African American women’s clubs all over the United States and therefore had to find different means to establish and maintain a bond that crossed state borders. There were numerous ways the NACW tried to accomplish this.

First of all, the biennial conventions were organized to function as a meeting place of the various local clubs who could send their delegates to these conventions. As presidents, Terrell, and Yates after her, devised different means to make sure the largest possible number of clubwomen would and could attend. The date of the convention of Chicago in 1899 was changed from July to August, so Terrell was able to arrange that the delegates got a reduced fare for their railroad tickets. For a reduction on railroad tickets she had to pledge one hundred delegates to the railroad company. At first, she was not sure if she could make such a guarantee. She approached the National Afro-American Council whilst they had a meeting with her husband, Robert Heberton Terrell, with the question if they could reschedule their planned convention of September 1899. They were willing to help her and both organizations made concessions, the NACW meeting a month later and the Council meeting a month earlier than planned. Now, Terrell could secure the railroad reduction as she could pledge at least a hundred delegates taking the train during that period.68 Conventions were also scheduled to take place at a time in the decided-on city whilst another crowd appealing event was taking place, such as the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo New York in 1901. Likewise, the fourth convention of the NACW in Missouri was delayed by a year, because the Louisiana Purchase Exposition

67_{Mary Church Terrell, "In Union There Is Strength," speech (1897). Speech obtained via ‘In Union There is}

Strength,’ BlackPast, accessed December 13, 2018, https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1897-mary-church-terrell-union-there-strength/.

68_{Mary Church Terrell, "Everything now in readiness for the annual session, August, 14}th_{, 1899," National}

Association Notes 3, no. 2 (August 1899): 1; Mary Church Terrell, "Preparations for Second Convention of

National Association of Colored Women," writing (1899 July 15). From Library of Congress, Mary Church

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was suspended by a year as well.69 This world exhibition celebrated the 100th year anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, which entailed the purchase of a large territory of the United States from France in 1803.

Secondly, within the organization of the NACW itself methods were constructed to bring about a sense of integration between the local affiliated clubs. At the 1897 convention, the delegates present voiced the need to form state federations between black women’s clubs based in the same state.70 The state organizers, a post created by the NACW at that same convention, had as task to form such state federations or to affiliate already existing state federations of black women’s clubs to the NACW, and to attract clubs to these federations.71 Examples of such state federations were the Ohio State Federation established in 1901, the Mississippi State Federation organized in 1903, and the Colorado State Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, Inc. formed in 1904. The Michigan State Association of Colored Women’s Clubs was organized in 1895 and affiliated with the NACW in 1898.72_{Yates reported in 1905}

that the state federations held annual meetings during which officers were elected, papers on current issues were read and discussed, and the line of work for the following year was composed.73 Members of the NACW’s executive board were to function as the state organizers and they worked closely with the national organizer. The main task of the national organizer, also a member of the executive board, was to spread the word of the NACW nationally and to establish more African American women’s clubs throughout the country.74 In 1904, at the convention in St. Louis, the delegates voted to create the office of vice-president at-large and that the state organizers would also become vice-presidents of the NACW.75

Federations of colored women’s clubs did not only exist on the level of the state, but greater federations were also formed by colored women’s clubs around the turn of the century based on larger territories. The North Eastern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs had already been established in 1896 and affiliated with the NACW two years later.76 The different state federations could and also did affiliate themselves with these sectional federations. In 1903, the Rhode Island Association of Colored Women’s Clubs and the Pennsylvania State

69_{Leslie, The History of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 71-73.} 70_{National Association of Colored Women, Minutes Convention 1897, 10.}

71_{Idem, 10-11.}

72_{Leslie, The History of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 383, 389, 462, 516.} 73_{Yates, "Report of the National Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs," 260.}

74_{National Association of Colored Women, Minutes Convention 1897, 11-12.; Mary Church Terrell, "The Duty}

of the National Association of Colored Women to the Race," speech (August 1899). From Library of Congress,

Mary Church Terrell Papers, 1851-1962, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/ms009311.mss42549.0355 (accessed April

4, 2019).

75_{"N.A.C.W. Convention in St. Louis," National Association Notes 8, no. 1 (October 1904): 1.} 76_{Leslie, The History of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 211.}

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Federation of Negro Women’s Clubs had been formed and associated itself with the North Eastern Federation and the NACW.77 Later, other sectional federations were formed, such as the Northwestern Association of Colored Women’s Clubs in 1915 and the Southeastern Association of Colored Women’s Clubs, Inc. in 1919.78_{Thus, by forming federations of black}

women’s clubs on the level of state and larger territories, the NACW had devised a way to make contact and collaboration between its different clubs easier and to integrate its local clubs.

The organization of the local clubs of the NACW into state and sectional federations also helped to facilitate and coordinate the cooperation between the clubs and the NACW. An interplay existed between the NACW and its local clubs, where they both advised and assisted each other. Clubwoman Josephine Beall Willson Bruce stated in an article published in 1904 how the NACW and the local clubs were working together: ‘The National stands as the teacher and helper of' the local clubs, just as it expects to be taught and helped by the local clubs… The life of' the National is dependent upon the individual clubs. There is an interchange of strength and opinion.’79_{The hand-on work of the NACW was performed by the individual clubs which}

could to some extent establish what work they wanted to perform based on their local needs, but the guidelines were determined by the NACW. For this reason, the NACW had established departments which focused on the different topics the Association wanted to tackle, such as temperance and religion. These departments established the goals of the association and defined its needs and its concerns.80 Hence the NACW had put in place a complex structure based on different levels to direct the activities of its affiliated clubs.

Thirdly, the NACW used the press to stay in close contact with its members. At first, the paper edited by Ruffin, the Woman’s Era, was made the official organ of the NACW at the founding convention in 1896 Boston.81 The subscription for the Era was set on fifty cents a year for members who would subscribe to the paper before November 1, 1897, thereby trying to secure as many subscribers as soon as possible by temporarily reducing the price. After this date, the subscription price would be 75 cents for members and one dollar for non-members. Also, another method was used to interest as many members for the subscription to the paper. A prize, entailing full tuition at the Emerson School of Oratory in Boston, was to be rewarded to the club that had the most subscribers to the Era before the first of January in 1897.82 The

77_{Idem, 213.} 78_{Idem, 279, 501.}

79_{Josephine Beall Willson Bruce, "The National Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs," National Association}

Notes 7, no. 11 (July 1904): 6.

80_{White, Too Heavy a Load, 33, 35.}

81_{Leslie, The History of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 49.} 82_{White, Too Heavy a Load, 49.}

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Era informed black women where which activities were being organized, but also published

articles on public questions, like education, and economic and political issues, such as the American presidential election of 1896.83

In 1897, the NACW replaced the Era as its national organ, however, by the creation of a paper that was entirely dedicated to the NACW, the Notes which was later changed to the

National Association Notes.84 Since the Era had become a financial burden for her, Ruffin welcomed this change.85 Washington edited the Notes out of Tuskegee Institute, the school that was partially established by her husband Booker T. Washington. Notes was for a large part financed by this institute. Therefore, the subscription cost could be kept at a low rate, namely 25 cents a year.86 The goal of the Notes mainly consisted of keeping members up to date with the progress of the NACW on the different levels it was active on. Reoccurring topics were ‘club notes’, ‘state news’, and ‘federation news’ which provided updates of the different local clubs, and state and sectional federations.87_{In the case of the clubs, for example, reports were}

made of their activities, such as which committees had been formed, what their work consisted of, what they were planning to do, and how much money they had raised for a specific cause. For instance, a club in Alabama commented on their work by stating: ‘The Ladies Auxiliary of Montgomery Alabama, is the most practical organization in the city. It has been and is still doing a great work for the poor of the city. Montgomery has three clubs, all of which are doing good work.’88_{The state and sectional federations commented many times in the Notes on the}

regional conventions they had organized and what was discussed and achieved there.

Furthermore, the Notes published articles regarding the accomplishments of individual black women or on topics concerning the objects of the NACW, but practical announcements were also frequently made in the Notes, for example concerning upcoming conventions. Regarding the conventions, the programs would be published, the ways to apply for the convention, clubs were urged to vote for their representative delegates, and afterwards the results of the conventions were published. Through the notes, clubs and women could make it known if they were able to attend the convention. A clubwoman named Mrs. J. H. Young commented for example: ‘I hope the meeting in Chicago in August will be a grand success. I

83_{Idem, 30, 51.}

84_{Leslie, The History of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 61.} 85_{White, Too Heavy a Load, 84.}

86_{White, Too Heavy a Load, 84; Leslie, The History of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 61.} 87_{See for example: "Club Notes," National Association Notes 3, no. 8 (February 1900): 1; "Federation News,"}

National Association Notes 5, no. 1 (February 1902): 1; "State News from Clubs," National Association Notes 5,

no. 1 (February 1902): 1.

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feel it will be a meeting of much good and a great many thoughts be brought out. My heart will be there for I am interested in the work. I will urge all club members to attend the meeting.’89 Also, announcements regarding payments of membership or the Notes subscription fees were made and when the NACW needed help to pay their membership of a hundred dollars to the National Council of Women a call was issued in the Notes. The clubs or women who made a donation got a notification in the paper. Mrs. L. A. Davis of Chicago Woman’s Clubs wrote: ‘We are all working hard here, and the Clubs are doing good work. I have just succeeded in raising the $5.00 for member-ship into the National Council of Women.’90

Since the establishment of the Notes in 1897, it became the main means for the NACW to communicate with its clubs and for the clubs to communicate with the NACW. Terrell emphasized the need of the Notes as a way of communication between the clubs and the Association in a personal letter that appeared in the Notes in 1901. In this letter, Terrell tries to secure that more local clubs will take a subscription to the Notes, so that they will know what is going on in the Association:

It takes a great deal of time to correspond with a large number of friends. However much the officers may want to write to all of the clubs, it will be impossible to reach every one except through The Notes. At our last meeting we urged each and every woman present to take The Notes for herself and her club, as the only possible means of communication with each other. Many have done so, but some have not. Let me urge each and every woman in it, to take The Notes and read it …. [W]e shall want to talk with each other about many things of interest to us all, and we can do this only through

The Notes.91

As president, the Notes presented the most effective method for Terrell to keep into close contact with the members of the NACW. In the same letter, Terrell encouraged members to directly contact her with comments on the Association:

I want each one of you to sit down very soon and write me a letter. I want you to be perfectly frank in expressing yourselves about any matter concerning our Association,

89_Idem.

90_{"Club Notes," National Association Notes 3, no. 11 (May 1900): 4.}

91_{Mary Church Terrell, "A Personal Letter from Our President," National Association Notes 4, no. 1 (January}

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which you think needs especial attention. If you think of anything that will help to make the National Association better and stronger, please feel perfectly free to give me the benefit of your thought on the subject. … It is only by exchanging ideas that our constitution will embody just those provisions which are especially suited to our particular needs.92

Yates, the second president of the NACW, underscored the use of the Notes as a means of communication for the president when she stated in 1902: ‘It is necessary that the women of the various states come in closer touch with each, that we know more of each other, understand more fully our common aims and purposes— and nothing can do this more effectively than a good, strong national organ; hence let us support The Notes with our subscription and patronage and in every other way possible.’93_{Thus, since 1897 the NACW got a more permanent way to}

correspond with its members and the Notes became the main channel of communication of the Association.

It was not only through the Notes that clubwomen could spread information on club work and matters that were of interest to this line of work. First of all, most state and sectional federations had a paper of their own. Mary H. Dickerson, the first president of the North Eastern Federation, edited a paper that functioned as the official organ of said federation called The

Northeastern Journal. 94 The Ohio State Federation had a paper called Queens Gardens and, similarly, the state of Missouri had a paper called The Outlook.95 Secondly, the black journals

of that time, most notably the Colored American Magazine and The Voice of the Negro, regularly disseminated articles from club women. The former adopted a ‘Woman’s World’ section in which the clubwomen of the NACW were allowed to publish articles.96 Especially, articles from Williams, Yates, and Washington, which mostly focused on the need and accomplishments of club work, appeared frequently in those journals.

Fourthly, the NACW tried to form a national bond among African American clubwomen through symbolic actions. At the St. Louis convention in 1904, the delegates decided that the national colors of the NACW should be white and purple. This was incorporated in the banners and badges of the NACW.97 Susie I. Lankford Shorter, a clubwoman of the Ohio State

92_{Idem, 4.}

93_{Josephine Silone Yates, "Federation News," National Association Notes 5, no. 2 (February 1902): 1.} 94_{Leslie, The History of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 211-212, 214.}

95_{Josephine Silone Yates, "The National Association of Colored Women," The Voice of the Negro 1 (1904):}

285.

96_{Jones, "Mary Church Terrell and the National Association of Colored Women, 1896 to 1901," 25.} 97_{"N.A.C.W. Convention in St. Louis," National Association Notes 8, no. 1 (October 1904): 1.}

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Federation of the NACW, wrote a federation song which was adopted by the Association as its national song.98 After its adoption, this song was then sung at the biennial meetings of the NACW. The song had the official slogan of the NACW as its title, namely ‘lifting as we climb.’ ‘Deeds not words’ was in turn the motto of the state federation of Ohio. So, through various symbolic ways the NACW tried to create a sense of unity among its members across the United States.

98_{Leslie, The History of the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 65; See appendix 1.}

6. Banner of the Oklahoma Federation of Colored Women's Clubs which was in founded 1910. It displays the motto of the NACW and one of its official colors: purple.

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Fifthly, the officials of the NACW employed the incident of the Jacks letter as a way to reinforce the collective identity of the women of the Association. The letter was utilized as a founding myth. A group can adopt a founding myth to strengthen or sustain a collective identity. According to spatial scientist Ina Peters, a founding myth is ‘a shared emotional experience which contribute[s] to the development of a collective identity.’99 She continues by explaining how a founding myth can enforce a collective identity: ‘If an incident of collective action is deliberately framed as the beginning of a social movement, it can turn into a founding myth and contribute to collective identity formation based on its shared emotional value.’100_{The letter of}

Jacks attacked the morality and character of black women, which in turn, brought them closer together in their outrage and distress over the content of the letter. In various documents concerning the NACW, officials emphasized that it was the letter of Jacks that led to the establishment of the organization.101_{Thus, through the framing of the letter of Jacks as the}

incident that led to the foundation of the NACW, the officials tried to sustain and strengthen the collective identity and national ties between the members of the association.

Finally, for local clubs it was relatively easy to form and maintain contacts between its members and officers because they could meet with each other frequently, but for the national officers this was a more difficult matter as their residences were all spread over the country. At the beginning of its existence, the NACW did not have national headquarters yet. They would be formed in Washington D.C. in 1928 under the guidance of Mary McCloud Bethune, who was the eighth president of the NACW.102 Before Bethune established the headquarters, clubwomen had to use other ways to keep into contact with each other. Besides meeting each other at the biennial conventions and visiting one another outside the conventions, an important way the clubwomen communicated was through correspondence. Lively friendships among the clubwomen developed, for example between Washington and Yates, but most of them regarded each other as allies united by a common goal, rather than friends, according to historian Deborah Gray White.103

99_{Ina Peters, Cohesion and Fragmentation in Social Movements: How Frames and Identities Shape the Belo}

Monte Conflict (Wiesbaden: Springer VS: 2017), 238.

100_Idem.

101_{Ruffin and Terrell for example highlighted in various speeches and articles that the letter of Jacks had led to}

the establishment of the NACW. Also, Ruffin and delegates during the conventions in 1895 and 1896 emphasized that the letter had led to them gathering together and to their organization.

102_{Hanson, Mary Mcleod Bethune, 116.}

103_{Deborah Gray White, "Private Lives, Public Personea: A Look at Early Twentieth-Century African American}

Clubwomen," in Talking Gender: Public Images, Personal Journeys, and Political Critiques, eds. Nancy A. Hewitt, Jean Fox O’Barr, and Nancy Rosebaugh (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 117.

Black Womanhood United