Exhibition Join In: Voluntary Assocations in America

Mary Church Terrell (1863–1964). “What the National Association [of Colored Women] Has Meant to Colored Women,” Mary Church Terrell Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (040.00.00)

Application for Membership to National Association of Colored Women, October 29, 1897. Mary Church Terrell Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (041.00.00)

*Minutes of the Second Convention of the National Association of Colored Women* . . . [Chicago: The Association, 1899?]. Daniel Murray Pamphlet Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (042.00.00)

“Local Committee on Arrangements of the Chicago and Northern District of Colored Women’s Clubs, Hostess to the National Association of Colored Women, 1924,” from the NACW 1924 Souvenir Program. Facsimile. Mary Church Terrell Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (043.01.00)

National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs

Mary Church Terrell and other Black women leaders founded the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) in 1896. NACW became the largest federation of local Black women’s service clubs. Terrell served as its first president. The organization advocated for women’s rights as well as for the improvement and advancement of all African Americans though education, work, activism, and support of the health and welfare of the community. With its motto “Lifting as We Climb,” the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs (as it is now known) is still active in thirty-two states.