"Shall We Have a Convention...?"

A proposal for African American clubwomen to convene arose in the first issue of Boston's The Woman's Era in 1894.1] As the first newspaper founded and edited by Black women, this monthly publication served as a means of communication for Black clubwomen across the country at a time when they found themselves largely excluded from White women's politics.[2] In the pages of The Woman's Era, Black clubwomen, including [Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and Florida Ruffin Ridley, shaped the representation of Black women by publishing their own articles on topics ranging from fiction, politics, social issues, domestic advice, and club updates.[3]

With a growing number of Black women's clubs and the birth of this nationally recognized publication, club leaders realized that a national meeting appeared to be the logical next step for advancement of the movement. For the next few months, The Woman's Era published responses from clubwomen regarding the "convention question." Nearly all seemed in agreement that the time could not be more "ripe for a convention of the colored women of the country."[4] Proponents of the convention argued that not only would a convention "lift the spirits and inspire" clubwomen to continue their work, but a national organization would "give solidity, unity of purpose, national character, and other requisites of success necessary to a movement so broad and far reaching as a race organization should be."[5]

With interest and support of a national convention established, the next task lay in deciding when and where to hold such an event. While some women wanted a meeting as soon as possible, others suggested waiting "until we are able to make such a conference impressive and grandly significant by a display of thoughtfulness, definiteness of purpose, and the presentation of facts and figures relative to work done."[6] Ultimately, a letter sent to Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin the following spring reinforced the need for Black women to unite together and prompted the immediate planning of a convention.

A Call to Confer

In March 1895, Florence Balgarnie, an English suffragist and anti-lynching advocate, received a letter from a Missouri journalist attacking Black women. In the letter, the journalist claimed Black women were "prostitutes and all are natural liars and thieves" and "wholly devoid of morality."[7] These statements appalled Florence Balgarnie, who then sent the letter to her friend, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin. Unfortunately, this view of Black women prevailed in the South among many Whites. While The Woman's Era deemed the letter "too indecent for publication," Ruffin enclosed a copy of the letter in an invitation to Black women's clubs to finally convene. The invitation called for clubwomen across the United States to read the letter and "decide if it be not time for us to stand before the world and declare ourselves and our principles."[8]

Although the support of a national convention had previously been well established, the letter provided an extra motivation to act quickly. Clubs had to raise funds in order to send delegates to Boston, the site determined best suited for the meeting. A Missouri club stated that "never did women work more earnestly than did these slandered women to raise the money."[9] Despite having only a couple of months to raise funds and organize, Black clubwomen nevertheless sent 53 delegates representing 14 states and Washington D.C. to Boston.[10]

Poster of the First National Conference of Colored Women, listing the officers of the Convention. All of the officers were members of the Boston Woman's Era Club. "A History of the Club Movement among the Colored Women of the United States of America" National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, 1902.

The Conference

The First National Conference of Colored Women of America began on July 27, 1895 at Berkeley Hall in South Boston. Following a formal opening consisting of club reports, Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, president of the convention, delivered the inaugural address to attendees. The reasons for conferring, she declared, included the need to "feel the cheer and inspiration of meeting each other;" "to talk over not only those things which are of vital importance to us as colored women;" and, most importantly, to "teach an ignorant and suspicious world that our aims and interests are identical with those of all good aspiring women."[11] Ruffin concluded her speech by sharing her hope that by the end of the conference, a formation of a national organization would bring about a "new era to the colored women of America."[12]

Our woman’s movement is a woman’s movement in that it is led and directed by women for the good of women and men for the benefit of all humanity...we are women, American women as intensely interested in all that pertains to such as all American women; we are not alienating or withdrawing, we are only coming to the front, willing to join any others in the same work and cordially inviting and welcoming others to join us.

Where this belongs

• Boston African American National Historic Site
• Boston National Historical Park

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