Danielle Phillips-Cunningham

In 1964, the task of racial desegregation of public schools hung over the country. In Denton, North Texas town, a remarkable alliance transcended racial divides, ignited a city-wide grassroots civil rights movement. Denton Women's Interracial Fellowship: Leading a Texas City's Desegregation by Annetta Ramsay is a vital historical account chronicling the extraordinary journey of courageous Black and White women. Driven by a shared desire to prepare their children for desegregation, the women forme the Denton Women's Interracial Fellowship. While media outlets focused daily on the violence of White men against Black men, Denton's Black and White women challenged entrenched systemic oppression to advocate for racial equality. Despite pervasive animosity and violence directed toward Black individuals by some within the White community, the women's influence radiated throughout every corner of the city. For twenty-five years, their moral compass signaled that racism would not be tolerated. Working toward achieving civil rights transformed these women; they became leaders. Positions of power within the group segued into pivotal political and community roles. Fellowship members solved community problems, tutored students, registered voters, and tirelessly worked to break down Denton's segregation. Denton Women's Interracial Fellowship provides a testament to the transformative power of grassroots organization. Boundless possibilities arise when individuals unite to pursue a more just and equitable society.

The story of one of the most influential labor leaders of the twentieth century reveals powerful lessons that still resonateAt the dawn of the twentieth century, Black girls and women faced a harsh career landscape. Domestic labor and sharecropping—which were the least regulated and lowest paying occupations for women in the US economy—were the few available ways for Black women and girls to make a living in Jane Crow America. In response to these circumstances, Nannie Helen Burroughs, the pioneering Black American educator and civil rights leader, established the National Training School for Women and Girls (NTS) in Washington, DC. Nannie Helen Burroughs tells the story of the powerful labor movement that resulted from Burroughs's work at the NTS and in the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. The NTS proved to be a revolutionary labor and educational initiative that redefined household employment as a profession where social justice for the Black community could be achieved. The NTS was integral to a Black clubwomen's labor movement that paved the way for a broader transformation of the economic landscape for Black women and girls. Nannie Helen Burroughs establishes Burroughs as one of America's most influential labor leaders in the twentieth century and reveals the powerful lessons her work and ideas still offer for America's laborers, labor organizers, scholars, and women's rights and racial justice activists today. It also establishes Burroughs and her colleagues in the National Association of Colored Women as the architects of an unprecedented labor movement.

The story of one of the most influential labor leaders of the twentieth century reveals powerful lessons that still resonateAt the dawn of the twentieth century, Black girls and women faced a harsh career landscape. Domestic labor and sharecropping—which were the least regulated and lowest paying occupations for women in the US economy—were the few available ways for Black women and girls to make a living in Jane Crow America. In response to these circumstances, Nannie Helen Burroughs, the pioneering Black American educator and civil rights leader, established the National Training School for Women and Girls (NTS) in Washington, DC. Nannie Helen Burroughs tells the story of the powerful labor movement that resulted from Burroughs's work at the NTS and in the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. The NTS proved to be a revolutionary labor and educational initiative that redefined household employment as a profession where social justice for the Black community could be achieved. The NTS was integral to a Black clubwomen's labor movement that paved the way for a broader transformation of the economic landscape for Black women and girls. Nannie Helen Burroughs establishes Burroughs as one of America's most influential labor leaders in the twentieth century and reveals the powerful lessons her work and ideas still offer for America's laborers, labor organizers, scholars, and women's rights and racial justice activists today. It also establishes Burroughs and her colleagues in the National Association of Colored Women as the architects of an unprecedented labor movement.