Image description: ca. late 1920's early 1930's - Portrait of the Southeastern Federation of Colored Women's Clubs (SFCWC).
Front Row, left to right Margaret Murray Washington (Mrs. Booker T. Washington), Mary McLeod Bethune, Lucy Craft Laney, Mary Jackson McCrorey.
Second Row, left to right Janie Porter Barrett, M.L. Crosthwaite, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Eugenia Burns Hope.

SFCWC was founded by Dr. Bethune and Lucy Craft Laney in 1920 to unite Black women state club federations from Florida, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Virginia.
The organization sought to combat school desegregation and to improve health facilities.

Dr. Bethune also served as the SFCWC's first president from 1920 to 1925. Under her leadership, the group was able to found a state home for delinquent, young, African American women and establish and operate the Home for Delinquent Girls in Ocala in 1921. It was in operation until 1955.

Read more about Mary McLeod Bethune and the other Black suffragists and the SFCWC here: https://www.nps.gov/.../mary-mcleod-bethune-true...

Photograph source: Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington D.C; Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation, Daytona Beach, Florida. Mary McLeod Bethune Foundation Collection, Daytona Beach Collection, Volusia County Collection, RICHES of Central Florida