Good Authority Editor Nadia E. Brown recently checked in with Danielle Phillips-Cunningham, an associate professor of labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers University. Danielle is the author of an intriguing new book, Nannie Helen Burroughs: A Tower of Strength in the Labor World (Georgetown University Press, 2025).
Nadia E. Brown: Congratulations on the new book! We all enjoyed a sneak peek at your research a few years ago – and we’re delighted to see this project in print. So what sparked your interest enough to research Nannie Helen Burroughs? She’s not a household name and is not someone – even in women’s/feminist circles, labor or Black/civil rights circles – that many people know?
Danielle Phillips-Cunningham: I was inspired to write a book about Burroughs after coming across an early twentieth century pamphlet that she wrote to recruit students to her school. She boasted that her National Training School for Women and Girls was the only school in the nation for, established, and managed by Black women.
So, when I read this, I said to myself, now who is this person “throwing shade” toward my alma mater, Spelman College? At the time, Spelman was one of very few institutions in the nation for Black women and girls…and it was established by two white women missionaries. While I was defending Spelman, I soon became intrigued because Burroughs told the truth.. I began to dig further into the enormous Nannie Helen Burroughs collection at the Library of Congress and several other archives across the country that hold pieces of her life story.
As I became immersed in her rich philosophies and organizing histories, I decided that a book about her labor movement and philosophical legacies was long overdue. In fact, the more I learned about her the more I became angry that Nannie Helen Burroughs is not a household name. Her story is especially needed in a country that rarely recognizes Black women as labor leaders and thinkers. Although I am a proud union member, there are still local, state, and national labor unions that have never had a Black woman president. Burroughs and her colleagues of the National Association of Colored Women laid a foundation for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the 1968 Fair Housing Act, and other critical legislation that impacts our lives at and beyond the workplace today. It is high time that we begin documenting the ever-present work of Black women as labor leaders.
Burroughs changed the economic landscape for Black women and girls. How did she wield so much influence during a period of time where Black women had little sociopolitical power?
Burroughs’ story highlights the power of labor organizing in the Black church and women’s organizations. She established and led organizations with strong community organizing and financial networks. In 1900, Burroughs established the Woman’s Convention, an auxiliary group of the National Baptist Convention known today as the Progressive National Baptist Convention. She served as corresponding secretary from 1900-1946 and as president from 1946-1961. I argue that one of the most significant roles of the Woman’s Convention was that they advocated for women to have decision-making power over the financial and community organizing fruits of women’s work in the church.
As Burroughs argued in her famous speech, “How the Sisters Are Hindered from Helping,” Black women formed the economic and social backbones of the Baptist church. They traveled hundreds of miles across the country engaging in community organizing and fundraising that significantly expanded the church. It therefore made no sense that women could not decide what to do with the money that they raised for the church.
Under Burroughs’ leadership from 1900-1961, the Woman’s Convention grew to over 3 million members. The organization became a large base for women’s organizing for better working and living conditions. It takes people and money to effect institutional change – and Burroughs had access to both. Leaders who are household names today – people like W.E.B. Du Bois, A. Philip Randolph, and Paul Robeson, Sr. – often consulted with Burroughs. They sought her allyship regarding their labor organizing and Pan-African projects because they knew she had a lot of influence as leader of one of the largest Black women’s organizations in the country.
With its fundraising prowess, the Woman’s Convention with Burroughs as its corresponding secretary (1900-1946) and then president (1946-1961), funded several important Civil Rights Movement initiatives such as the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Institute on Nonviolence and Social Change. They also provided jobs to Black teachers who were fired for joining the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. As one of Thurgood Marshall’s spiritual advisors, Burroughs saw to it that the Woman’s Convention donated handsomely to the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund to support the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case and the smaller legal challenges that led up to this pivotal Supreme Court case.
Lastly, Burroughs became a leader of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW). The NACW was also one of the largest and most effective Black women’s organizations in the country. NACW members established several associated organizations that focused on challenging gender and racial discrimination in all aspects of society. In 1924, Burroughs was elected by her NACW peers as president of the National League of Republican Colored Women. She gained national influence while president of this political advocacy group that engaged in voter organizing and pressured congressmen and presidents to address the socioeconomic and political issues confronting Black communities.
What does Nannie Helen Burroughs have to teach us about organizing and responding to restrictive politics – what are the lessons that we can draw from today?
Burroughs’ life teaches us that we must do everyday movement-building work. This work might not generate several hundred likes and heart emojis on Instagram, X, or Facebook, but it’s necessary for protecting the rights that the current administration and more than half of Congress is trying their hardest to dismantle, at rapid speed. Examples of that everyday movement-building work that Burroughs engaged in – and that we can use today – include compiling book lists that challenge the status quo. Education has always been targeted by people who are hostile to Black political and economic progress.
Burroughs insisted on opening her school with small donations from working-class Black people because she did not want white philanthropists to dictate the curriculum of her school. She assigned books written by Dr. Carter G. Woodson and other Black scholars who challenged the boundaries of academic disciplines to center voices and perspectives that were often missing from textbooks. Everyday movement-building work also includes conducting research to expose disparities – like Burroughs tackled with her historic Committee on Negro Housing report.
And Burroughs’ story reminds us that we can turn to the arts to inspire our communities to organize for a better present and future. She wrote several plays during the Little Black Theater Movement of the Harlem Renaissance era to encourage Black people to fight for economic and political empowerment like people had done in Haiti, Liberia, and Ethiopia. In a nutshell, she would tell us that we do not have the luxury of staying silent. And she’d no doubt encourage us to try multiple tools and strategies to regain legislative protections and citizenship rights that are foundational to a functioning democracy.
After Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election to Donald Trump, many Black women – who turned out at 92% to support her candidacy – publicly declared that we needed to rest and rejuvenate. Many felt incredibly tired after the grueling 107-day sprint of a presidential campaign and were dismayed by the country’s commitment to White heteropatriarchy. What would Burroughs proffer to this group of women today? How does her life’s example of movement building – in a slow yet deliberate manner in the face of White supremacy and heteropatriarchy – give us a road map for today?
This question reminds me of a line that Burroughs wrote in a 1960 edition of The Worker shortly before passing into history in 1961. Burroughs established the periodical in 1912 from the printing department on her school’s campus. It was the first international Black American women’s labor periodical established at a Black women’s school. She wrote to her Black women’s readership:
These two basic rights (the right to earn and learn) spell first class citizenship in a democracy. Without these we will always be second-class citizens. Women, we must not drag our feet this year. Rome, or America, is actually burning.
Echoing Burroughs’ words, many Americans today are concerned that the country is in serious trouble. Many of the rights that she and other Black women fought for are being threatened everyday. She would tell us that we do not have the luxury to rest or opt out of politics. Burroughs was a Pan Africanist and had Black nationalist leanings. She would also say that the election results make clear that Black women do not need to save the world. Instead, they should prioritize Black communities’ needs and interests moving forward, and only work with people of other racial groups who are truly committed allies.
And I have one final question. As a Black woman historian who studies Black women, how has the political climate, if at all, influenced your viewpoint on doing this work?
I imagined promoting my book during the presidential term of the first Black woman president of the United States. Just imagining that brought me so much joy. Now that we are in a completely different situation, ironically, Burroughs’ story is even more critical for us to discuss. In fact, her story is right on time. Some lawmakers and administrative officials support language, bills, and executive orders that would take our country back to the Jim Crow era.
The current political climate has challenged me to think about Black women’s history in more practical ways than I ever have before. Since lawmakers in many states are removing Black history from our classrooms, I intentionally discuss and write about Burroughs’ history in more accessible ways so that I can reach institutions, organizations, and public history sites that have a degree of autonomy in relation to the book bans.
Most of all, I want Burroughs’ story to reach my generation (millennials), as well as Gen X and Gen Z. We are at a crossroads where we must seriously ask ourselves: Do we truly value democracy? Do we really care about the laws and amendments that Burroughs and our other ancestors fought for – and that we benefit from every single day? The good news for those of us who do want a democracy is that Nannie Helen Burroughs and other Black American women throughout history have provided us with a blueprint for strengthening democracy.
