Nannie Helen Burroughs and her educational legacy

Nannie Helen Burroughs: A Review

Born on May 2nd, 1879 in Orange, Virginia, Nannie Helen Burroughs was the daughter of two former slaves. At the age of five, Burroughs lost her father, and was subsequently moved to Washington, D.C. By her mother, who sought a better education for her two young daughters. Many years after the move, Burroughs graduated in 1896 with honors in business and domestic science from what was then called the Colored High School in D.C. This move in pursuit of Burroughs' education seems to be the jumping off point for the great accomplishments she would achieve later in life. While not a traditional biography of any sort, Opal V. Easter's analysis of Nannie Helen Burroughs' life and accomplishments is an extensive study of a trailblazer seeking to make education accessible to her people. The book takes necessary aim at Burroughs' revolutionary exploits throughout her life, and focuses on the extraordinary fact that what was once a privilege and nearly unattainable, is now considered an unalienable right amongst all Americans.

Early in her career, Nannie Helen Burroughs helped to establish the National Association of Colored Women. This association was the product of a merger of several other organizations, including the National Federation of Afro-American Women and the National League of Colored Women. During this time she was working in direct contact with other key players in the progressive movement, including Harriet Tubman and Mary Church Terrell. This organization was guided by their goal "to furnish evidence of the moral, mental and material progress made by people of color through the efforts of [their] women." This organization would go on to make great strides, not only in the advancement of colored women, but in the movement towards women's suffrage and the battle against lynching in the south.

Despite this great accomplishment early on in Burroughs' life, Opal V. Easter's book focuses more on Burroughs' role in the Woman's Convention and the National Training School. In 1900 Burroughs, already deeply involved in the National Baptist Convention, became a key player in the founding of the Woman's Convention. This Woman's Convention was essentially an assembly from local churches and other various political associations. The members emphasized and organized a variety of charity activities, as well as special missions both domestically and abroad. Burroughs would continue to act as the corresponding secretary for the organization for nearly 50 years following its founding, and would go on to make several major speeches regarding the cause, such as the famous and articulate "Women's Part in the World's Work," which she delivered in London in 1905 to the First Baptist World Alliance. Easter's novel underlines the struggle felt not just by black women, but by all women during this time, undervalued by the men that held control of the world around them.

Through her work with the Women's Convention, Burroughs was able to garner support for furthering education amongst women in America, and ultimately founded the National Training School for Women and Girls (NTS), which was officially opened up in 1909 in the Lincoln Heights part of Washington, D.C. Burroughs was aided in the procurement of this school by gaining financial support from various aspects of her community, notably women in support of the cause. Even the predominantly white, conservative Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, a religious institution, offered a great deal of financial help, despite the fact that the school offered a non-denominational enrollment policy to girls of all religions. The school broke amazing ground in the advancement of women, providing higher level education to prepare them not just to be homemakers, as was tradition, but to be trained as independent in the working world. Many of the women attending this school would go on to do great things in the improvement of life for colored people, not only in America, but in other places such as Africa.

Burroughs would act as president of the NTS until her death in 1961. Under her guidance, the school was able to expand from the small building of its humble beginnings to a full-fledged campus. Thousands upon thousands of girls from all over the world were able to graduate with a quality education, learning not only of basic academia, but of specialized trades, social services, and charity works. Because of the limited employment prospects for women at the time, Burroughs made sure to refine the domestic sciences, and many girls were able to graduate with complete training in secretarial work. Burroughs goal through domestic training was to ultimately make it a professional occupation, with the possibility of even forming a trade union for women to take control of their employment. Unfortunately domestic labor is an extremely difficult aspect of society to unionize, but her involvement in its development allowed many struggling women to make a comfortable living. During this time, Burroughs created a creed of racial self-help, calling it "the three B's": the bible, the bath, and the broom. Each "B" stood for a specific aspect in women's lives during her time that she felt could foster growth in their lives; she emphasized a clean life, a clean body, and a clean house. Although this creed may appear to be that of an obedient housewife, Burroughs was quite passionate about raising strong-willed and self-determining students. Her worst nightmare would have been to see one of her students bow down to an abusive husband.

Easter's book also sheds light on Burroughs' work as a writer, notably with The Worker, a quarterly missionary publication that Burroughs created in 1912. Throughout her life she was a rather productive and talented writer, and even instituted courses at her school that helped to develop language skills for her students. Many of her columns would appear in publications such as the Pittsburgh Courier, and Burroughs was able to profess her religious and societal beliefs to the widespread public. Burroughs maintained the motto, "We specialize wholly in the impossible," which she used to inspire her students, but also seemed to view as a life lesson and personal mantra in her own pursuits.