Nannie Helen Burroughs A Pioneer for the Working Class Black Woman

A deeper look a lesser known legendary entrepreneur and activist of racial, gender, & class inequality.

Via The Library of Congress

*Note this piece was originally written for an assignment for one of the Social Welfare Policy Assignments in my MSW program at Howard University. It was written October 1st, 2020. It’s been edited for this newsletter. Enjoy!*

Who is Nannie Helen Burroughs?

Nannie Helen Burroughs is an unsung legend in African American history. Inspired by her mother’s resilience Burroughs made it her mission to uplift Black women in the working class. Although her work was based in the nation’s capital, Burroughs touched Black women from all over the world through the creation of the National Training School for Women and Girls (Taylor, 2002). It was the only multidisciplinary training program exclusively made for Black women. NTS gave them the tools to be skilled in a wide variety of vocations during a time when government programs were not targeted toward helping the Black community (Taylor, 2002).  Moreover, her candid scholarship and speeches often critiqued the prevalence of elitism and sexism in the Black church and secular communities (Harley, 1996). Burroughs’ work for racial, gender, and class equality makes her a pioneer in the social welfare space.

Why Burroughs?

For a brief period, I lived in Ward 7, Lincoln Heights on 50th St NE and Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave NE. Black history and culture are steeped in the fabric of the District so eponymous streets in honor of Black leaders are commonplace. However, I was not even remotely aware of who Nannie Helen Burroughs was nor was I intrigued enough to find out. One day I ran into a well-known elder and historian around town, he was distributing buttons with a black and white photo of a Black woman on it; it was Nannie Helen Burroughs. Remembering her from the street I used to live near, I was intrigued by the bits and pieces of information he’d told me about her. Shortly after that, I read a collection of short stories about Black women and girls living in DC titled Training School for Negro Girls by Camile Acker (2018). There was a quote from Miss Burroughs as the opening dedication to the book: 

“We are looking for girls of the finest character. This is a select school. There is such a great need for young women and talent and leadership ability, who really want to let their lights shine in this ‘confused’ world…”-Nannie Helen Burroughs, Founder, and President of the National Training School for Women  & Girls (Acker, 2018)

When I was given the opportunity to learn and think critically about her work I was excited to learn about her salience to the narrative. If DC felt it appropriate to name a street after her then she must have done amazing work even if I was not aware of it. This is another major reason I needed to know more about her story; why was she left out of the Black history canon if her work was so significant?