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National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Inc. |
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"Lifting As We Climb"
A Legacy of Strength
Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin
At the call of Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, (NACWC) was organized in Washington, DC on July 21, 1896 by the merger of National Federation of Afro-American Women, the Women's Era Club of Boston, and Colored Women's League of Washington, DC. The NACWC is the oldest African American secular organization in existence today.
The objectives of the NACWC are as follows:
1. To promote the education of women and children,
2. To raise the standards of the home,
3. To improve conditions for family living,
4. To work for the moral, economic, social, and religious welfare of women and children,
5. To protect the rights of women and children,
6. To secure and enforce civil and political rights for the African American race, and
7. To promote interracial understanding so that justice may prevail among all people.
[The] National Association of Colored Women's Clubs is a great fellowship of women united for service to lift the standards of the home and extending their service to help make better communities. The activities and contributions of the club women help to improve the quality of the life for all people, especially those in the African American community.
NACWC Club Colors
Purple & White NACWC Club Flower Violet NACWC Club Motto "Lifting As We Climb" NACWC EMBLEM
National Headquarters Address
National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Inc.
5808 16th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20011
Josephine St. Pierre, was born in Boston on 31st August, 1842. Her mother was a white woman and her father had been born in Martinique. John St. Pierre was a successful clothes dealer and was able to afford a good education for his daughter. He objected to the segregated schools in Boston and so she was sent to Salem to be educated.
When Josephine was sixteen she married George Lewis Ruffin, the first African American to graduate from Harvard Law School. The couple were both active in the struggle against slaveryand during the Civil War they helped recruit black soldiers for the Union Army.
Josephine also supported women's suffrage and in 1869 joined with Julia Ward Howe and Lucy Stone formed the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) in Boston.
George Lewis Ruffin died in 1886. He had been a successful lawyer and municipal judge and left his wife a considerable amount of money. Josephine decided to use this to fund the Woman's Era, the country's first journal published by and for African American women. Edited by her daughter, Flora Ruffin, the monthly magazine advocated women's suffrage and equal civil rights.
In 1895 Ruffin organized the formation of the National Federation of Afro-American Women. The following year it merged with the Colored Women's League to form the National Association of Colored Women(NACW). Mary Church Terrellwas elected president and Ruffin served as one of the organization's vice-presidents.
Ruffin remained active in the struggle for equal rights and in 1910 helped form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Josephine Ruffin, co-founder of the League of Women for Community Service, died in Boston on 13th March, 1924. |
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