Mississippi State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs

The late nineteenth century increasingly saw women forming charities, social clubs, and mutual aid societies across the country, and Mississippi’s African American women were no different. Though the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs was founded in 1896, it was a 1901 visit by Margaret Murray Washington and the Southern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs to Vicksburg that propelled Mississippi’s women forward. Washington reportedly spoke of the importance of club work, of women’s central role in improving Black communities, and of ways to uplift Black women and girls. Within just a few years, the women who attended that meeting had organized local clubs to provide “relief work and small charities” to those in need. The Women’s Christian Union of Vicksburg was the first, and as the number of local clubs increased, club leaders united to establish the Mississippi State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs (MSFCWC) in the Pearl Street AME Church in Jackson in 1903. The MSFCWC aimed to provide civic and social improvements, as well as cultural and religious education, for Black communities with the goal of “lifting as we climb.”

In its earliest years, the MSFCWC was composed of many women in the growing Black professional or middle class. The women who made the first official call to action in Mississippi were educators and social reformers. Ursula J. Foster, the MSFCWC’s first president, was a faculty member at Alcorn A&M College (now Alcorn State University). Mattie F. Rowan, the federation’s first secretary and third president, was first lady at Alcorn and known for her community service work. Lizzie W. Coleman was a prominent educator in Greenville. Lucy Jefferson, who served as the first president of the club in Vicksburg, was one of the most notable and wealthy Black women in the city. She was a member of numerous social organizations and cofounded the W. H. Jefferson Funeral Home with her husband. Their class status enabled club leaders and members to provide project funds from their own pockets.

The state federation’s first major service project began when the Women’s Christian Union of Vicksburg decided to establish an old folks’ home in the city. The home served elderly and poor Black citizens who could not receive adequate care from Warren County’s existing “poor house”. In 1904 the club purchased an antebellum home and surrounding properties to serve as its location. The funds, provided by club members and the public, were used to renovate the property to ensure it would be safe and comfortable. In 1910 the MSFCWC took control of the home for a number of years before eventually returning the responsibility back to the local club. The home is known to have operated into at least the 1930s.

The MSFCWC held annual meetings until 1915 when the federation saw a decrease in centralized participation. The clubwomen resumed their work by 1920 with the election of Grace Allen Jones as president. President Jones was a teacher at the Piney Woods Country Life School, founded by her husband, and used her tenure to encourage women across the state to create more local clubs. Mattie F. Rowan established the first junior club at this time. Mississippi’s Black club women advocated for a variety of issues, including quality childcare, an African American history curriculum, proper medical care facilities, improved conditions for Black domestic workers, and the care of children and adults with disabilities. After the Federal Suffrage Amendment was ratified, the MSFCWC placed increased focus on suffrage by encouraging Black women to pay their poll tax and participate in local, state, and national elections when possible. The federation also published its own newsletter, the Women’s Herald, to update clubwomen within the national network of their efforts.

It was around this time that the MSFCWC began forming plans to create a home for African American “juvenile delinquents” in Mississippi. It was common practice to send Black youth to penal labor farms or prison as punishment for even minor infractions. The MSFCWC’s proposed home would instead operate as a school with opportunities for students to learn academic subjects and trade skills. The federation purchased the former Mount Herman Seminary and surrounding acreage in Clinton in 1927 for $8,000 and put another $4,500 toward renovations. The school welcomed its first student in November 1929 and was named the Margaret Murray Washington Home for Delinquent Youths. Unfortunately, a year later the main building was destroyed in a fire that shuttered the school for a time. Through their own dedicated efforts and with additional support from white women’s clubs and politicians, the MSFCWC saw Senate Bill no. 239 pass in 1940, which made the state responsible for maintaining a reform school for Black youth, just as it maintained the Columbia Training School for white youth. It was renamed the Oakley Training School and continued to be funded by the county and the MSFCWC. Both institutions were desegregated around 1970.

The state federation continued identifying community-serving projects into the late twentieth century. Under President Bertha L. Johnson, the MSFCWC donated land to Hinds County Public Schools to establish the first high school for rural Blacks. The federation also sought to create a recreation and campground for the Black population in and around Clinton. They supported 4-H clubs as well as Boy and Girl Scout Troops. Beginning in 1970, the MSFCWC sought financial and organizational support to sponsor the creation of housing projects for low-income, elderly, and disabled Mississippians. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development provided $3.5 million for the project. The Federation Towers were opened in Clinton, Clarksdale, Grenada, and Hattiesburg in the early 1980s.

Since then the MSFCWC has remained active in hosting annual meetings, supporting local club initiatives, providing crucial social relief, and offering educational and recreational opportunities for African Americans in the state.