People

Mary McLeod Bethune Portrait, 1949

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Mary McLeod Bethune

Mary McLeod Bethune used the power of education, political activism, and civil service to achieve racial and gender equality throughout the United States and the world. Emerging from abject poverty and oppression of the Reconstruction South to achieve greatness, she founded the National Council of Negro Women, Inc. (NCNW), an "organization of organizations" in 1935, and served as its first president. Read More

 

Dr. Dorothy Boulding Ferebee Portrait

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Dr. Dorothy Boulding Ferebee

In 1949 when Mary McLeod Bethune resigned from the presidency of the NCNW, she had selected Dr. Dorothy Boulding Ferebee, her personal physician and NCNW's national treasurer, to be her successor. Not surprisingly, Ferebee put increased emphasis on healthcare education. Read More

 

Vivian Carter Mason Portrait

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Vivian Carter Mason

In November 1953, the NCNW elected Vivian Carter Mason as president. A graduate of the University of Chicago, Mason had been the first Black female administrator in New York City's Department of Welfare. Read More

 

Dorothy Irene Height Portrait

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Dorothy Irene Height

In 1957, Dorothy Irene Height, who had served for 20 years in various appointed positions with NCNW, became its fourth president. Height had the arduous task of leading NCNW during the early 1960s, a turbulent period of increased racial violence in the South as the Civil Rights Movement expanded. Read More

 

Mary McLeod Bethune and NCNW Members at the organization's International Night event on November 18, 1949.

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Women of the House

Since its founding in 1935, the National Council of Negro Women, Inc. (NCNW) has continued to serve as a beacon in the lives of African American women, their families, and communities throughout not only America, but the world. The same could also be said about the NCNW's first national headquarters, known as "Council House". From 1943 to 1966, many women (and some men, too) came through its large, mahogany wood doors, to work tirelessly to institute change in American society. Some women, like Mrs. Bethune, were public figures and well-known, while others were not. Learn more about these amazing, barrier-breaking figures below.

Council House Staff and Volunteers

H. Elsie Austin
Jeanetta Welch Brown
Arabella Denniston
Anna Arnold Hedgeman

Activists and Organizers

Julia West Hamilton
Marjorie Stewart Joyner
Daisy Lampkin
Edith Sampson
Maida Springer
Mable Keaton Staupers
Mary Church Terrell

 

Mary McLeod Bethune presents NCNW Roll of Honor Awards to Carol Brice and Eleanor Daily.

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Arts and Entertainment

Josephine Baker
Carol Brice
Lena Horne
Lois Mailou Jones
Ella Moten

Educators

Charlotte Hawkins Brown
Nannie Helen Burroughs
Arenia C. Mallory

 

Eunice Hunton Carter, second from right, with, from left, Ella Moten, Daisy Lampkin, and Mary McLeod Bethune

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Lawyers

Sadie T.M. Alexander
Eunice Hunton Carter
Marjorie Lawson
Dovey Johnson Roundtree

 

President Harry S. Truman, Mary McLeod Bethune, Madame Vijaya Pandit, and Ralph Bunche at NCNW's International Night event on November 18, 1949.

University of Central Florida Libraries

Politicians and World Leaders

Congressman William L. Dawson
Congresswoman Helen Gahagan Douglass
Madame Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit
Congressman Adam Clayton Powell
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt

Writers and Preservationists

Venice T. Spraggs
Sue Bailey Thurman
Dorothy Porter Wesley