Nannie Helen Burroughs

Nannie Helen Burroughs, (May 2, 1878 – May 20, 1961) was an African-American educator, orator, religious leader, civil rights activist, feminist and businesswoman in the United States. Her speech "How the Sisters Are Hindered from Helping," at the 1900 National Baptist Convention in Virginia, instantly won her fame and recognition. In 1909, she founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, DC. She continued to work there until her death in 1961. In 1964, it was renamed the Nannie Helen Burroughs School in her honor and began operating as a co-ed elementary school. Constructed in 1927-1928, its Trades Hall has a National Historic Landmark designation.

Nannie H. Burroughs born on May 2, 1879, in Orange, Virginia. She is considered to be the eldest of the daughters of John and Jennie Burroughs. Around the time she was 5 years old, her youngest sister died in utero and her father, who was a farmer and Baptist preacher, died a few years later. Her mother and father belonged to a small fortune of ex-slaves which compelled them to start toward prosperity by the time the war ended and freed them. She had a grandfather known as Lija the carpenter, during the slave era. He was capable of buying his way out to freedom.

By 1883, Burroughs and her mother relocated to D.C. and stayed with Cordelia Mercer, Nannie Burroughs' aunt and older sister of Jennie Burroughs. In D.C., there were better opportunities for employment and education. She attended M Street High School. It was here she organized the Harriet Beecher Stowe Literary Society, and studied business and domestic science. There she met her role models Anna J. Cooper and Mary Church Terrell, who were active in the suffrage movement and civil rights.

Burroughs expected to work as a teacher in the District of Columbia Public Schools. She was told she was "too dark" — they preferred lighter-complexioned black teachers. It wasn't just skin color that seemed to be the issue — her social pull had thwarted her for the appointment she was chosen for (if, in fact true, or not). Burroughs said it herself "the die was cast [to] beat and ignore both until death." This zeal opened a door to a whole new set of opportunities for low-income and social status Black women. This is what led Burroughs into a whole new path of opportunities such as establishing a training school for women and girls to fight injustice.

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