ABSTRACT
Writing shortly after the 1899 convention of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), Fannie Barrier Williams optimistically predicted the benefits to be drawn from the organization’s recent formation:
The National association (sic) has made it possible for many bright[,] colored women to enjoy the fellowship and helpfulness of many of the best organizations of American women. It has certainly helped to emancipate the white women from the fear and uncertainty of contact or association with women of the darker race. In other words the National Association of Colored women’s clubs is helping to give respect and character to a race of women who had no place in the classification of progressive womanhood in America.
