Promoting Historical Consciousness: The Early Archives Committee of the National Council of Negro Women

Abstract

Although black women's history has captured more attention in recent years, too little research has yet been done. Lack of documentary evidence has presented at least one obstacle. Archival repositories have too often neglected women's records while building collections about great white men; even institutions devoted to documenting black culture have often overlooked black women. Forty years ago the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) recognized that the history of black women was and would continue to be ignored-and took steps to address this problem. Their efforts to collect documents and to promote a historical awareness about black women eventually resulted in the establishment of their own repository-the National Archives for Black Women's History-with rich resources for scholars of Afro-American history, women's studies, and social history. The NCNW, founded in 1935 by Mary McLeod Bethune and twenty-nine representatives from fourteen black women's organizations, mainly concentrated on social programs to combat racial oppression. However, only four years after the organization began, Bethune appointed an archives committee, placing an emphasis on black women's history that would influence NCNW activities throughout its history. Bethune was closely connected to two other related efforts. As president of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History from 1936 to 1950, she continued the work of its founder, Carter G. Woodson, who since 1915 had educated black Americans about the necessity of collect-