Date: Thu Feb 22, 5:30 PM EST - Thu Feb 22, 7:00 PM EST
In honor of Black History Month and in partnership with the Savannah Black Heritage Festival, the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace is proud to present "The Only School Ever Founded by an Organization of Negro Women: Nannie Helen Burroughs and her National Training School for Women and Girls" with special guest Dr. Danielle Phillips-Cunningham.
At the dawn of the 20th century, less than 50 years after emancipation and with Jim Crow laws in place across much of the country, Black girls and women faced a harsh career landscape. Nannie Helen Burroughs, an African American educator, broke barriers by establishing the National Training School for Women and Girls in 1909. Join us in welcoming special guest Dr. Danielle Phillips-Cunningham for her lecture, "The Only School Ever Founded by an Organization of Negro Women," where she delves into her forthcoming book, A Tower of Strength. This talk highlights Burroughs' influential role in Progressive Era education and labor leadership, showcasing the vital role of Black women's schools in U.S. labor movements.
Dr. Danielle Phillips-Cunningham is an associate professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations at Rutgers University. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Comparative Women’s Studies from Spelman College and a doctorate in Women’s and Gender Studies from Rutgers University. She is also the recipient of the National Women’s Studies Association’s Sara A. Whaley Book Prize for Putting Their Hands on Race: Irish Immigrant and Southern Black Domestic Workers (Rutgers University Press, 2020). Her articles about Nannie Helen Burroughs have appeared in The Washington Post and academic journals in African American Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Literary Studies.
