Alabama's Colored Women's Club

The first African American women's club in Alabama, the "Ten Times One is Ten Club" was established in 1888. The other African American clubs were the Tuskegee Women's Club, established in 1895, and the Anna M. Duncan Club of Montgomery, established in 1892. Several of the early clubs united and created the Alabama Federation of Colored Women's Club in 1899. By 1904, there were more than 26 clubs throughout Alabama. The most active ones were in Birmingham, Selma, Mobile, Tuskegee, Tuscaloosa, Eufaula, Greensboro, and Mt. Megis.

Tuskegee Women's Club

Under the leadership of Margaret Murray Washington the Tuskegee Women Club was formed with female faculty and the wives of male faculty members of the Tuskegee Institute. Thirteen women took part at the first meeting of the club in 1895, which was designed to enlighten the members morally, spiritually and intellectually. Meetings were held twice a month and new teachers were encouraged to join. Since the members were part of the academic arena the services were related to learning and education.

The Tuskegee Women's Club actually helped to form new communities and construct social services. One of its pioneer actions was to create a community out of a plantation settlement by providing educational and social services to the poor inhabitant of the rural area.

Tuskegee Mothers' Club

One of the most successful projects of the Tuskegee Woman's Club was the sponsoring of the mothers' meeting or mothers' club. The idea of this project came up when Margaret Washington was attending the first Tuskegee Negro Conference in 1892. At the conference, her husband Booker T. Washington discussed the problems that the black male faced and gave possible solutions. He inspired the farmers by giving them new ideas and new hope. This reminded Margaret Washington of how women were neglected and thought to be unworthy. They were considered to be unimportant outside the house. Additionally, the women themselves did not realize how unimportant they were considered by their husbands and sons. Margaret Washington thought of working with the women in Tuskegee and the surrounding areas.

The Tuskegee Mothers' Club meetings managed to improve the lives of the women a great deal. The women learned how to be well groomed. Many of them did not know their age, and they were helped to recall some incident which took place around the time of their birth in order to figure out their age. Many mothers lacked childcare options and brought their children along. The children were provided with educational support and were taught simple lessons, and they received skills of good behavior. According to Margaret Washington the black women had the proper training to look after their homes. They were occupied with working for white families and looking after white children and their families. As a result their own children were deprived of proper care and were very much neglected, which is considered a form of abuse.

Alabama Federation of Colored Women's Club

Margaret Murray Washington was the organizer and the first president of the Alabama Federation of Colored Women's Club, which was established on December 29, 1899. During the preliminary meeting of the club there were discussions of how to address the mounting reform problem; one of the pressing needs was to establish a reformatory for African American youths. The most extensive work of the club was in prison reform. It can only be assumed how black juvenile delinquents were treated as part of the other criminal population. The Federation was successful in getting young black prisoners released into the custody of its boys' school built at Mt. Meigs. Young lives were saved from prison by the supervision of Margaret Washington. This corrective school got less support from the state, as opposed to the white boys' reform school. The club members also supported the older prisoners with personal care and religious services. The state eventually assumed the responsibility for the boys' reformatory school and the club women started to raise funds to build homes for young girls at Mt. Meigs. Prison reform being a national issue, the national office of NACW eventually joined the program.

The black women in the Progressive Era struggled enormously to survive with honor, which they seldom achieved. They were not only discriminated against by another race, but also by other women. Ironically, they even experienced revulsion from black males. It can only be imagined what these women went through. In many cases the women did not even have the wisdom to understand the injustices of their society. To many it was normal; they thought their lives were meant to be thus. Not till the educated middle class women of the Era had established the women's clubs and arranged all the services, did the black women understand what value they had in society. The members of the clubs also had an opportunity to work as role models for young girls and young women. Thus, the women who received various services probably felt encouraged being served by women from the same race. The black women perhaps know the art of respecting women of the same race better than any other women, and the women's clubs of the Progressive Era helped them achieve it.