Women’s Clubs

Reading a night letter from the Honorable Earl Warren, Governor of California, inviting the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs Convention to California (left-right): Margaret Nottage, Lillian M. Dixon, Gertrude Reese-Hicks, Mable Gray, Billie Ashby
Reading a night letter from the Honorable Earl Warren, Governor of California, inviting the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs Convention to California (left-right): Margaret Nottage, Lillian M. Dixon, Gertrude Reese-Hicks, Mable Gray, Billie Ashby, 1952, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph collection, MS 189, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.
Attendees to the annual convention of the California State Association of Colored Women's Clubs
Attendees to the annual convention of the California State Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Inc. Los Angeles, California, 1956, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph collection, MS 189, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

Prepare for a visit to AAMLO with these special topic resource guides.

This resource guide is intended to help users locate holdings at AAMLO related to African American Women's Clubs in California.

It highlights holdings in the following areas:

● Selected Library Material at AAMLO
● Selected Archival Collections at AAMLO

Other collections may contain relevant materials. Please contact AAMLO (aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org) with any questions or to schedule an appointment to view materials in person.

Selected Library Materials

Portrait of Hattie E. DeHart, co-founder of the Fannie Coppin Club
Portrait of Hattie E. DeHart, co-founder of the Fanny Jackson Coppin Club, circa 1910, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph collection, MS 189, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

Lifting as They Climb by Elizabeth Lindsay Davis

Activities Among Negroes: [Newspaper Column] by Delilah L. Beasley

A History Commemorating Sixty Four Years of Solidarity and Service by the Phyllis Wheatley Club of the East Bay (Oakland, Calif.)

We Did What We Had to Do : Black Women and the Struggle for Civil Rights in Oakland, California, 1900-1940 by Jessica Christina Harris

Too Heavy a Load : Black Women in Defense of Themselves, 1894-1994 by Deborah G. White

Under Siege : Construction and Care at the Fannie Wall Children's Home and Day Nursery by Marta Gutman

Selected Archival Collections

Colored Women's Clubs Associations Collection. The records included within this collection trace the histories of three different associations of colored women's clubs: the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs; the California State Association of Colored Women's Clubs; and the National Council of Negro Women. Thirty-one women's clubs in the Bay Area are included in the files on affiliate clubs. The records on these clubs range from a few flyers or programs to information on by-laws, finances, and projects. Local clubs which are most thoroughly documented include the Fanny Jackson Coppin Club, the first African American women's club in Oakland; the Rhododendron Club; Mother's Charity Club; and the Imperial Art and Literary Club. 

Leisure Arts Club Scrapbook. The Leisure Arts Club was founded on January 31, 1941 at the home of Althea Clark. The club joined the California State Association of Colored Women's Clubs on June 12,1941.

Group photograph of members of the Fannie Jackson Coppin Club
Group photograph of members of the Fanny Jackson Coppin Club, 1914, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph collection, MS 189, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

Berkeley Civic Study Club Records. The Swastika Berkeley Civic Study Club was founded in 1924 by a group of African American women wanting to study civic issues and participate in bettering their community. The club mounted campaigns to make African Americans more familiar with voting procedures and joined with the League of Women Voters in helping more African American women to register to vote. 

Fannie Wall Children’s Home and Day Nursery, Inc. Records. Established in Oakland, California on November 20, 1918 by the Northern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, the Fannie Wall Children’s Home and Day Nursery, Inc. was created to care for homeless, dependent, neglected children from broken homes, and to provide day care for children of working parents. The home was managed by a Board of Directors, which largely consisted of members of the Northern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, a community advisory committee, and an executive director who oversaw the home’s day-to-day operations.

California Native Daughters Club Collection. The California Native Daughters Club was founded in Berkeley, California in the late 1950s. Founders included Bertha Allen Wysinger (1885-1967), the club's first president, and Ruth Hackett Lasartemay (1902-1991), who also served as president later. The club joined the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs in 1959.

Phyllis Wheatley Club of the East Bay Records. Named after African American poet Phillis Wheatley (c.1754-1784), the Phyllis Wheatley Club of the East Bay was founded in 1914 by Mrs. Fred Williams and Hettie B. Tilghman (1871–1933). The original intent of the club was to cultivate young Black women and encourage their contributions to the community. Over the next two decades, it quickly became a charitable organization focused on fundraising efforts that supported local organizations, community services, and programs in the East Bay.

Young Women's Christian Association Collection. The Young Women's Christian Association Collection consists of correspondence, event invitations and programs, meeting minutes, constitution and by-laws, and publications of the Linden Street Young Women's Christian Association of Oakland collected by the East Bay Negro Historical Society. The bulk of the YWCA of Oakland series is administrative records of the Linden St. and Market St. branches of the YWCA of Oakland.

Flood Family Papers. Lydia Flood (1862-1963) was active in many women’s organizations, including the Native Daughter’s Club, Fanny Jackson Coppin Club, and Federation of Women’s Colored Clubs. She served as the Federation of Women’s Colored Clubs’ first legislative chairwoman and advocated for the organization to promote women’s suffrage.

Mayme C. Netherland Collection. As one of California’s prominent first African American families, Netherland (1877-1973) was a member of the California Native Daughters and was an active member of multiple clubs under the auspices of the Colored Women’s Association, as well as an officer of the CWCA.

Ruth Beckford Papers. Includes interviews with clubwomen Mayme (Mary) C. Netherland (1877-1973), Vivian Osborne Marsh (1898-1986), Iantha H. Villa, and an interview with Charles H. Tilghman discussing his mother Hettie B. Tilghman.

Frances Albrier Papers. The Frances Albrier papers include correspondence, legal and financial records, awards, photographs, records of civic organizations and women’s clubs including the Northern Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, Inc., and the Women’s Art & Industrial Club, Inc.

Earline Woods Photograph Collection. Includes five photographs of the Women's Civic Improvement Club of Sacramento.

African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph Collection. Includes photographs depicting the California State Association of Colored Women's Clubs, National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, Berkeley Civic Study Club, Women's Art and Industrial Club, California Native Daughters Club, Rhododendron Club, Elizabeth Brown Six and Over Club, Mary Church Terrell Club, and the Fanny Jackson Coppin Club. The collection also includes various photographs of prominent clubwomen including Mayme (Mary) C. Netherland (1877-1973), Hettie B. Tilghman (1871–1933), Melba Stafford (1879-1967), Fannie Wall (c.1860-1944), and many others. 

African American Museum & Library at Oakland Vertical File Collection. Selected items include the constitution and by-laws of the Phillis Wheatley Club of Oakland, California, letters from Viola M. Brooks to members of the Northern Section of the California State Association of Colored Women, Lillian Dixon's files related to the Northern Section of the California State Association of Colored Women's Clubs, and a 1955 Southern Section California State Association of Colored Women's Clubs directory. The collection also includes programs and invitations documenting the activities of various African American women's clubs in the Bay Area.

15th biannual convention, National Association of Colored Women, Oakland, California
15th biannual convention, National Association of Colored Women, Oakland, California, 1915, African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph collection, MS 189, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library.

Additional Information

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Consult AAMLO's finding aids in the Online Archive of California.

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