Women Builders

Nannie Helen Burroughs

Nannie Helen Burroughs (1879–1961) moved to Washington, D.C., as a young woman to take advantage of the city's superior educational opportunities. While living in Washington she decided to someday open a school for African American girls to prepare them for a productive adult life. Burroughs was an active member of her church, where she organized a women's club that conducted evening classes in useful skills such as typewriting, bookkeeping, cooking, and sewing. Her responsibilities within the church increased when she became secretary of the Women's Auxiliary of the National Baptist Convention, which supported missionary work and educational societies in Baptist churches throughout the nation. Burroughs's dream lifelong dream was realized when she opened the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington, D.C., in 1909.

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