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Nannie Burroughs fought for rights of women.
By Ursula V. Battle
AFRO Staff Writer
Possessing the talent to express articulately and eloquently the struggle for women's rights and other issues facing Black females during her era, Nannie Helen Burroughs is among history's greatest speakers and educators.
While a great orator, Ms. Burroughs is best known for founding, and serving as long-time president of the National Training School for Women and Girls located in Washington, D.C.
Founded in 1909 by Ms. Burroughs, the school offered missionary training, as well as an industrial curriculum that prepared women for jobs as cooks, laundresses, chambermaids, ladies' maids, nurses, housekeepers, dressmakers, clerks, and bookkeepers.
The training school also stepped outside the realm of traditional female employment by also offering courses in printing, barbering, and shoe repair.
The school opened its doors in 1909 to 35 students.
In the school's first 25 years, more than 2,000 African-American women from across the United States, Africa, and the Caribbean enrolled at the high school and junior college levels at the facility.
Ms. Burroughs dubbed the institution "The School of the Three B's," because of the emphasis she placed on the Bible, bath, and broom as tools...