National Association of Colored Women

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National Association of Colored Women's Clubs Emblem

The National Association of Colored Women (NACW) was established in Washington, D.C., USA, as the product of the merger in 1896 of the National Federation of Afro-American Women and the National League of Colored Women, organizations that had arisen out of the African American women's club movement.

Founders of the NACW included Harriet Tubman, Frances E.W. Harper, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett, and Mary Church Terrell. Its two leading members were Josephine Ruffin and Mary Church Terrell. The original intention of the organization was "to furnish evidence of the moral, mental and material progress made by people of color through the efforts of our women". However, over the next ten years the NACW became involved in the campaigns in favor of women's suffrage and against lynching and Jim Crow laws. By the time the United States entered the First World War membership of the NACW had reached 300,000. Black Women’s Movement

The main organization formed during the Black Women’s Movement was the National Association of Colored Women during 1896 in Washington D.C. This was due to two women, Josephine Ruffin and Mary Church Terrell. Both women were of mixed racial background and had successful parents. These women got the National Association of Colored Women involved in other campaigns such as women’s sufferage, Jim Crow law, and lynching. Josephine Ruffin’s father was a successful clothes dealer and sent his daughter that was born on August 31 1842, to a school in Salem because it was not segregated. There she flourished and then married at the age of 16 to Harvard’s first African American graduate of their Law School, Mr. George Lewis Ruffin. They both helped recruit black soliders for the Union Army during the Civil War. George Ruffin died in 1886 and left his wife a large amount of money that she used to fund the first published journal by and for African- American women called Woman’s Era. Josephine Ruffin also helped form the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People be for her death in March of 1924. Another great supporter for the African women’s rights was Mary Church Terrell. Her father, Charles Church was considered to be one of the wealthiest black men in the south and was able to send his daughter to Oberlin College where she graduated from in 1884. Mary Church Terrell then went on to speak at the Berlin International Congress of Women and made a great impression by being the only black women there by speaking in both German, French, and English. She also become the president of National Association of Colored Women, and helped in the in the struggle against segregation in public eating places in Washington. Mary Church Terrell died in Annapolis on 24th July, 1954. The organization of the National Association of Colored Women helped all African women in the aspects of women’s suffrage, Jim Crow law, and lynching. This was done through two women, Josephine Ruffin and Mary Church Terrell.