Danielle Phillips-Cunningham: Nanine Helen Burroughs

Nannie Helen Burroughs: A Tower of Strength in the Labor World is the story of one of the most influential labor leaders of the twentieth century, revealing powerful lessons that still resonate. Read on for a Q&A with author Danielle Phillips-Cunningham to learn more about the the process for writing this book, what is already out there about Nannie Helen Burroughs; and what Professor Phillips-Cunningham hopes readers will take away from her book.

What was the research process like for writing this book? What drew you to Nannie Helen Burroughs?

I was drawn to Nannie Helen Burroughs after coming across a reference to her National Association of Wage Earners while conducting research for my first book. It was the first national organization of the twentieth century dedicated to advocating for standardized wages and working conditions for Black domestic workers. When I first traveled to the Library of Congress to research the Burroughs papers, I was stunned by the membership cards of the association. The diverse membership of the organization was a loud testament to the importance of domestic workers to the Black Freedom Struggle for labor rights during the racial segregation era. The records also reflected the tremendous determination that it would take to transform working conditions in an occupation rooted in the history of slavery.

After researching the association’s records, I was inspired to dig further into the treasure trove of materials in the Burroughs papers and write a book about the daring woman behind this historic organization. It quickly became apparent that Burroughs was an expansive visionary who had extensive connections with people across political, economic, and social institutions.

How does this book add to the existing scholarship about Nannie Helen Burroughs?

Nannie Helen Burroughs: A Tower of Strength in the Labor World is the first book-length study that establishes Burroughs as one of the most influential labor leaders of the twentieth century. It also establishes Burroughs’s National Training School for Women and Girls, which she founded in 1909, as a significant site of labor organizing that advanced labor movements in the twentieth century. Burroughs was such an impressive organizer and writer that scholars, clergymen, teachers, and women’s and civil rights leaders have been documenting her life since the early twentieth century. In 1993, Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham’s Righteous Discontent introduced contemporary readers to Burroughs and her historic leadership in the church and education. Several late twentieth century and early twenty-first century scholars published articles, book chapters, and dissertations about Burroughs after the publication of Higginbotham’s book. Most recently, in 2019, Kelisha Graves’s Nannie Helen Burroughs: A Documentary Portrait of an Early Civil Rights Pioneer, 1900-1959, an edited volume of Burroughs’s writings, established Burroughs as one of America’s greatest philosophers. My book is in good company with this rich body of scholarship that has brought Burroughs and her work into greater visibility and study.

What do you hope people take away from this comprehensive exploration of Nannie Helen Burroughs and her impact on the labor world?

I want people to take away from my book that Burroughs and other Black women educators of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW) were labor scholars and strategists who believed that women’s rights and civil rights were inherent to labor rights. They mobilized their comprehensive vision of labor rights to build an unprecedented labor movement in Jane Crow America. Legal scholar Pauli Murray coined the term Jane Crow to describe racial and gender discrimination enshrined in twentieth century laws, institutions, and social movements.

Burroughs and her co-organizers’ unyielding commitment to challenging intersecting racial, class, and gender disparities at the heart of the US economy is foundational to legislation such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These key pieces of legislation advanced labor movements and the lives of all workers.