Five Black Pioneers You Should Know About – Maryland Today

Nannie Helen Burroughs, Educator and SuffragistBlack female activists have dealt with double discrimination throughout U.S. history, making the achievements of early-20th century educator and suffragist Nannie Helen Burroughs particularly remarkable, said Sharon Harley, associate professor of African American studies. A longtime champion of Burroughs, Harley is now writing a full-length biography, Nannie Helen Burroughs: Standing Up for Justice, which will be published in 2023 by Yale University Press.

Nannie Helen Burroughs was a Washingtonian, a black Baptist feminist thinker, an educator and a staunch advocate for Black working-class women. Burroughs founded, in 1909, the National Training School for Women and Girls in northeast Washington, D.C. Her Christian-based religious beliefs motivated her to build the vocational school that promoted racial advancement and womens empowerment.

She helped to lay the foundation for modern Black feminist theology, joined in labor organizing and teamed with others to establish early foundations for modern-day movements to gain justice for African Americans and women. She used a savvy approach to womens education to support their financial independence. She was a courageous woman ahead of her times, determined to be a vocal advocate for the dignity of girls and womens labor within and even beyond the Christian tradition.

I came to admire Burroughs for standing up for women's rights and advocating for poorer domestic service workers despiteor because ofher own humble roots. Though I knew little about her or her school that I passed on a daily basis growing up in Washington, D.C., I now know how she was an amazing woman leader who needs to be known more broadly.

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Five Black Pioneers You Should Know About - Maryland Today