Burroughs, Nannie Helen. "Black Women and Reform." The Crisis 10 (August 1915): 187

Author: Burroughs, Nannie Helen 
Title: Black Women and Reform
Publication: "Votes for Women: A Symposium by Leading Thinkers of Colored America" pp 178-192 in The Crisis 10 (August 1915)

This short essay by Nannie Helen Burroughs is one of a series included in this fourth issue of volume 10 of The Crisis by leaders from all over the U.S. For more information about the Kentucky connections, see the KWSP Biosketch on Burroughs published here. The full text of Nannie Helen Burroughs' submission is transcribed as follows:

The Negro Church means the Negro woman. Without her, the race could not properly support five hundred churches in the whole world. Today they have 40,000 churches in the United States. She is not only a great moral and spiritual asset, but she is a great economic asset. I was asked by a southern white woman who is an enthusiastic worker for "votes for (white) women," "What can the Negro woman do with the ballot?" I asked her, "What can she do without it?" When the ballot is put into the hands of the American woman the world is going to get a correct estimate of the Negro woman. It will find her a tower of strength of which poets have never sung, orators have never spoken, and scholars have never written.

Because the black man does not know the value of the ballot, and has bartered and sold his most valuable possession, it is no evidence that the Negro woman will do the same. The Negro woman, therefore, needs the ballot to get back, by the wise use [italics Burroughs] of it, what the Negro man has lost by the misuse [italics Burroughs] of it. She needs it to ransom her race. A fact worthy of note is that in every reform in which the Negro woman has taken part, during the past fifty years, she has been as aggressive, progressive and dependable as those who inspired the reform or led it. The world has yet to learn that the Negro woman is quite superior in bearing moral responsibility. A comparison with the men of her race, in moral issues, is odious. She carries the burdens of the Church, and of the school and bears a great deal more than her economic share in the home.

Another striking fact is that the Negro woman carries the moral destiny of two races in her hand. Had she not been the woman of unusual moral stamina that she is, the black race would have been made a great deal whiter, and the white race a great deal blacker during the past fifty years. She has been left a prey for the men of every race, but in spite of this, she has held the enemies of Negro female chastity at bay. The Negro woman is the white woman's as well as the white race's most needed ally in preserving an unmixed race.

The ballot, wisely used, will bing to her the respect and protection that she needs. It is her weapon of moral defence. Under present conditions, when she appears in court in defence of her virtue, she is looked upon with amused contempt. She needs the ballot to reckon with men who place no value upon her virtue, and to mould healthy public sentiment in favor of her own protection. (p. 187)

Other essays included in this section of The Crisis are:

• Rev. Francis J. Grimke, Pastor, 15th St. Presbyterian Church, Washington D.C.: "The Logic of Woman Suffrage" (p. 178-79)
• Hon. Oscar De Priest, Alderman of the City of Chicago: "Chicago and Woman's Suffrage" (p. 179)
• Benjamin Brawley, Dean of Morehouse College, Atlanta, Ga. "Politics and Womanliness" (p. 179)
• John Hurst, D.D., Bishop of the African M.E. Church and Secretary of the Bishops' Council: "Christianity and Woman" (p. 179-180)
• Hon. J.W. Johnson, Formerly U.S. Consul to Nicaragua: "About Aunties" (p. 180-181)
• Hon. Robert H. Terrell, Justice of the Municipal Court, District of Columbia: "Our Debt to Suffragists" (p. 181)
• Dr. W.H. Crogman, Professor of Ancient Languages, Clark University, S. Atlanta Ga.: "Woman in the Ancient State" (p. 181-182)
• Charles W. Chesnutt, Author of "The Wife of His Youth," "The Morrow of Tradition," etc.: "Women's Rights" (p. 182-183)
• Hon. John R.Lynch, Major, Retired, U.S. Army: formerly Speaker of the House of Representatives of Mississippi; U.S. Representative, 6th District of Mississippi, 43rd, 44th and 47th Congresses; 4th Auditor of the U.S. Treasury, 1889-93; etc.: "States' Rights and the Suffrage" (p. 183)
• L.M. Hershaw, of the United States Land Office: "Disfranchisement in the District of Columbia" (p. 183)
• Mrs. Paul Laurence Dunbar: "Votes and Literature" (p. 184)
• Mrs. Mary B. Talbert, Vice President-at-Large, National Association of Colored Women: "Women and Colored Women" (p. 184)
• Mrs. Coralie Franklin Cook, Member of the Board of Education, District of Columbia: "Votes for Mothers" (p. 184-185)
• Mrs. Carrie W. Clifford, Honorary President of the Federation of Colored Women's Clubs of Ohio: "Votes for Children" (p. 185)
• Mary Fitzbutler Waring, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Health and Hygiene, N.A.C.W.: "Training and the Ballot" (p. 185-186)
• William Stanley Braithwaite, Author of Anthologies of Magazine Verse, etc.: "Democracy and Art" (p. 186-187)
• Miss N. H. Burroughs, Secretary of the Woman's Auxiliary to the National Baptist Convention: "Black Women and Reform" (p. 187)
• Miss M. E. Jackson, Of the Civil Service of the State of Rhode Island, President of the R.I. Association of Colred Women's Clubs: "The Self-Supporting Woman and the Ballot" (p. 187-188)
• Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, Pioneer in the club movement among Colored Women of the United States: "Trust the Women!" (p. 188)
• Mrs. A. W. Hunton, Formerly Advisor to the National Board of Directors, Y.W.C.A.: "Y.W.C.A." (p. 188-189)
• Miss Maria L. Baldwin, Principal of the Agissiz Public School, Cambridge, Mass.: "Votes for Teachers" (p. 189)
• Miss Anna H. Jones, Chairman of the Department of Education, National Association of Colored Women: "Woman Suffrage and Social Reform" (p. 189-190)
• Mrs. B. K. Bruce, Editor of the official organ of the National Association of Colored Women: "Colored Women's Clubs" (p. 190)
• Mrs. Elizabeth Lindsay Davis, National Organizer, National Association of Colored Women: "Votes for Philanthropy" (p. 191)
• Mrs. Mary Church Terrell, Honorary President of the National Association of Colored Women: "Woman Suffrage and the 15th Amendment" (p. 191) 
• Mrs. Lillian A. Turner, Honorary President of the Minnesota Association of Colored Women's Clubs: "Votes for Housewives" (p. 192)

[Note from the Editor of The Crisis: Articles received too late for insertion from President John Hope, Hon. C.W. Anderson, Mrs. G.W. Morgan, Hon. W.H. Lewis and Mrs. N.J. Asberry.]