from Helping," at the National Baptist Convention.
On October 19,1909,she founded the National Training for Women & Girls in Washington,D.C., which uniquely
provided academic, religious,vocational classes
for African American girls and young
women at a time when education was
segregated in the South;she operated
it until her death.It has since been renamed the Nannie Helen Burroughs School in her honor and provides coeducational classes for the elementary grades.Its Trades Hall,built in 1927-28, has been designated as a National Historic Landmark.She was born in Orange,Virginia.her parents were John & Jennie Burroughs attended the Richmond Institute and became a Baptist Preacher.He was a farmer
and serve as an itinerant preacher.Her mama worked as a a cook before and after the Civil War.
In 1883,Jennie moved with her Nannie,then five,to Washington D.C. so
that Nannie could be educated in its city schools.Nannie parents were
associated with a small and fortunate class of free African Americans and ex-slaves who possessed the energy and ability to begin working
towards prosperity almost as soon as they were freed by the civil war.
After the Civil War,African-Americans congregations had quickly withdrawn from white-dominated churches in the South to create churches independent of white supervision.They had a few before the war,but soon had many more.Within several years,they were setting up
state Baptists associations and, by the end of the 19th century,national
associations as the African Methodist Episcopal Church planted new
congregations among African Americans communities in the South.
In 1896,Nannie helped establish the National Association of Colored Women (NACW),one of a number new associations of African American
women organized for philanthropic and charitable purposes.In 1897,she
started work as an associate editor at the Christian Banner in Philadelphia,Pennsylvania.
In 1898 Nannie moved to Louisville Kentucky for a position as a bookkeeper and editorial secretary for the Foreign Mission Board
of the National Baptist Convention,where she serve until 1909.This was
the national association of black Baptists churches.In 1902 she studied
business.In 1907,she received an honorary A.M.degree from Eckstein-Norton University,a historically African-American college in Cane Spring,Bullitt County,Kentucky.
In 1909,she founded the National Training School for Women and Girls in Washington,D.C. The school emphasized preparing students for employment.Nannie offered courses in domestic science and secretarial
skills,also in unconventional occupations such as shoe repair,barbering,
and gardening.Nannie created a creed of racial self-help through her
program of the three Bs:the Bible,the bath,and the broom stood for for a clean body, and a clean house. Nannie was one of the first honorary
members to be inducted into Delta Sigma Theta,an African American sorority.
She belived domestic work should be professionalized and vocational.
Nannie trained her students to become self-sufficient wage earners and
expert homemakers.She emphasized the importance of being proud African American women domestic work should be professional and vocational.She trained her students to become self-sufficient wage and
expert homemakers.She emphasized the importance of being proud African-American women to all students,by teaching African-American history and culture through a required course in the Department of Negro history.
Nannie became active in the National League of Republician Colored
women,trying to influence the national party on behalf of African Americans.She also participated in the National Association of Wage
Earners,working to influence legislation related to wages for domestic
workers and other positions held by women.
She gained prominent supporters for her school; for instance,pastor Adam Clayton Powell,who led the large and influential Abyssinian Baptist Church of New York City,was on board of trustees of the National Training School.He helped raise funds for construction in 1927-1928 of its Trades Hall building,which in 1991 was designated as a
National Historic Landmark.In 1934,the school was renamed the National Trades and Professional School for Women.The School was inactive for a time during the Great Depression Nannie revived,and it has operated to present day.
In 1928,the Herbert Hoover administration appointed Nannie as committee chairwoman related to Negro Housing,for his 1931 White House Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership.This was held soon after the Crash of 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression.
Nannie died in Washington,D.C., on May 20,1961,of natural causes.The funeral was held at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church where she was a member.
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