Women and African American History: 1900-1909
1900
• (September) Nannie Helen Burroughts and others founded the Women's Convention of the National Baptist Convention
1901
• Regina Anderson born (librarian, Harlem Reaissance figure)
1902
• Local white protests of the appointment of Minnie Cos as postmistress of Indianola, Mississippi, led to President Theodore Roosevelt suspending postal services to the town.
• (February 27) Marian Anderson born (singer)
• (October 26) Elizabeth Cady Stanton died (antislavery and women's rights activist)
1903
• Harriet Tubman signed over her home for the elderly to the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
• Harriet Marshall founded the Washington (DC) Conservatory, admitting African American students
• Maggie Lena Walker founded St. Luke's Penny Savings Bank in Richmond, Virginia, becoming the first woman bank president
• Sarah Breedlove Walker (Madam C.J. Walker) begins her haircare business
• Ella Baker born (civil rights activist)
• Zora Neale Hurston born (writer, folklorist)
1904
• Virginia Broughton published Women's Work, as Gleaned from the Women of the Bible
• Mary McLeod Bethune founded what is today Bethune-Cookman College
1905
• Niagara Movement founded (out of which the NAACP grew)
• National League for the Protection of Colored Women founded in New York
• Ariel Williams Holloway born (musician, teacher, poet, figure in Harlem Renaissance)
• Constitution of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, "Wobblies") included a provision that "no working man or woman shall be excluded from membership in unions because of creed or color"
• first outdoor tuberculosis camp in the United States was opened in Indianapolis, Indiana, sponsored by the Women's Improvement Club
1906
• after a riot in Brownsville, Texas, President Theodore Roosevelt delivered dishonorable discharges to three companies of African American soldiers; Mary Church Terrell was among those formally protesting this action
• second meeting of the Niagara Movement met at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, with about 100 men and women in attendance
• Josephine Baker born (entertainer)
• Susan B. Anthony died (reformer, abolitionist, women's rights advocate, lecturer)
1907
• Negro Rural School Fund was established by Anna Jeanes, aimed at improving education for rural southern African Americans
• Gladys Bentley, Harlem Renaissance figure, became known for her risque and flamboyant piano playing and singing
• Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller received the first federal art commission awarded to an African American woman -- for figurines of African Americans to be used at the Jamestown Tercentenniel Exposition
1908
• call issued which resulted in 1909 founding of NAACP; women signers included Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Jane Addams, Anna Garlin Spencer, and Harriot Stanton Blatch (daughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton)
• in Los Angeles, the Woman's Day Nursery Association was formed to provide care for African American children whose mothers worked outside the home
• Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority founded
1909
• Nannie Helen Burroughs founded the National Training School for Women, Washington DC
• Gertrude Stein's novel Three Lives characterizes a black female character, Rose, as having "the simple, promiscuous immorality of Black people."
• (February 12) National Negro Conference
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