Tuesday, November 19, 2024 | 5:30pm
Information Commons, 4th Floor
6501 N. Kenmore Ave
Chicago, IL 60660

The BMRC in collaboration with the Gannon Center for Women and Leadership, University Libraries, and Women and Leadership Archives at Loyola University invites you to a talk on the League of Women for Community Service. Dr. Johnnie Hamilton-Mason (Simmons University) situates the League, its founding, and mission within the broader Black women’s club movement of the early 20th century.

Established by Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin and Maria L. Baldwin in 1918, the League not only advanced social justice but also actively preserved Black cultural heritage through its intentional collecting and documenting. In collaboration with Mary Church Terrell, and other Black women’s clubs, the League collected significant documents and artifacts from leaders in social justice struggle such as Ida B. Wells. The archival collection of the League is a powerful repository of Black women's activism and resistance that is examined in this talk.