• EDUCATOR & ACTIVIST
• Born to former slaves, she moved with her mother to Washington, D.C. after her father died
• Graduated high school with honors, but was refused a teaching position with local public schools
• FOUNDED the National Training School for Women and Girls (NTSWG) and served as its president
• Believed in the power of education to foster girls' leadership skills and self-confidence
• The school was staffed ENTIRELY by women
• Also president of the National Association of Wage Earners (with Mary McLeod Bethune as her VP), which was committed to helping vulnerable populations, including migrant workers, women, and Black Americans
• A devout Baptist, she was a member of the National Baptist Convention, which she convinced to buy the land for her new school
• Instead of seeking funding from wealthy patrons to build the school, Burroughs successfully collected enough small donations from families in the community
• The NTSWG was so popular that a bigger building was soon required, and Trades Hall, which is now a National Historic Landmark, was finished in 1928
• Advocated for increased women's participation in the church, often going head to head with male religious leaders -- including some who opposed her school
• An ardent suffragist, she wrote about how white and Black women needed to work together to reach their common goal
• Never married, remaining fully independent her whole life
• Three years after her death, the NTSWG was renamed Nannie Helen Burroughs School in her honor

Photo Courtesy of the Library of Congress, via the National Park Service

Bibliography: Taylor-Webb, Traki. “Burroughs, Nannie Helen.” The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, Oxford University Press, 2008, p. 268.
National Park Service / Nannie Helen Burroughs. https://www.nps.gov/people/nannie-helen-burroughs.htm

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Trades Hall of National Training School for Women and Girls

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