Page 162 - Swann Galleries - Printed & Manuscript African Americana- Sale 2308 - March 21, 2013

290 ● (CIVIL RIGHTS—WOMEN.) BURROUGHS, NANNIE. Nannie H.
Burroughs of Washington D.C. “Female Booker T Washington” will Lecture at
the Y. W. C. A Auditorium, Sunday June 11, 1922 3 P.M. . . . White sign printed in
red14 x 11 inches; lightly toned; framed. [Poughkeepsie, New York?], 1922 [800/1,200]
A RARE AND EARLY APPEARANCE OF THE NOTED WOMEN’S AND CIVIL RIGHTS
ACTIVIST.Nannie Helen Burroughs (1879-1961) was born in Orange, Virginia. In 1883,
she and her mother moved to Washington where she received a high school education. While
working as a bookkeeper, she became involved in women’s rights issues and in 1900 co-founded
the Women’s Convention, an adjunct to the National Baptist Convention. At a meeting of the
latter, she delivered a speech that instantly made her famous “How the Sisters Are Hindered
from Helping.” She held the position of corresponding secretary until 1947, then as President
until her passing in 1961. She was responsible for the establishment of the National Training
School for Women and Girls, which opened in 1909, and she was one of the early founders of
the National Association of Colored Women. Burroughs was a life member of the Association
for the Study of Negro Life and History and wrote and lectured on behalf of racial pride and
civil rights her entire adult life. In a 1934 article in the Afro-American, she prophetically
wrote: “Negroes should start using ballots and dollars to fight racism, instead of wasting time
begging the white race for mercy.” As she grew older Nannie Burroughs became decidedly more
radical and in the 1940’s she edited a Baptist journal called “The Worker.” She was in her
mid seventies when the Montgomery Bus Boycott began, and in 1956 wrote “Justice, the
Integration Song,” which was voted by the Baptist Convention as their “National Anthem.”
291
291 ● (CIVIL RIGHTS—WOMEN.)
BURROUGHS, NANNIE HELEN.
Woman’s Day. Dr. Nannie H.
Burroughs of Washington D.C.
Photographic placard, printed on heavy
cardstock with an early image of Dr.
Burroughs; some warping and discol-
oration.
[Denver, Colorado], 1959 [600/800]
A rare poster-placard for a talk by the great
educator and women’s rights activist. Nannie
Helen Burroughs (1879-1961) orator, reli-
gious leader, and businesswoman gained
national recognition for her speech “How the
Sisters Are Hindered from Helping,” delivered
at the National Baptist Convention in 1900.
She founded the National Training School for
Women and Girls in Washington, DC in
1909. It has since been renamed the Nannie
Helen Burroughs School in her honor and pro-
vides education for the elementary grades.