National Council of Negro Women Formed
Mary McLeod Bethune, an African-American adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt and a friend to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, brought together representatives of 28 different organizations to found the National Council of Negro Women on this day. Its predecessor, the National Association of Colored Women, was founded in 1896.
The first headquarters of the NCNW is now a National Historic Site (see below). The organization is still active today. Its mission is “to lead, develop, and advocate for women of African descent as they support their families and communities.”
For Bethune’s report to the Roosevelt administration on the conditions of Negro Youth in the Depression, see January 18, 1937. A statue in honor of Bethune was erected in Washington, DC on July 10, 1974.
Bethune was a founder of the “Black Cabinet,” an informal group of the small number of African Americans employed by President Roosevelt administration during the New Deal. The group had a friend in First Lade Eleanor Roosevelt, but the president was concerned about not alienating southern segregationists in Congress, and did little for African Americans or civil rights.
Go to the National Council’s web site: http://www.ncnw.org/
Watch a documentary on the National Council of Negro Women: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8Mgzc3TLE4
Learn abut Bethune and the “Back Cabinet:” Jill Watts, The Black Cabinet: The Untold Story of African Americans and Politics During the Age of Roosevelt (2020)
Visit the NCNW National Historic Site in Washington: http://www.nps.gov/mamc/index.htm
Learn about the NCNW at the Smith College “Agents of Social Change” site:
http://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/agents/ncnw.htmlLearn more about Bethune at the National Women’s History Museum: https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/mary-mcleod-bethune/
Visit the National Museum of African American History and Culture here