The Arkansas Association of Colored Women was formed in 1905, adopting the slogan of its national organization, “Lifting As We Climb,” and working to improve conditions in African American communities across the state.
The association pursued that goal in different ways through the years, focusing on health issues and protection of Black women and girls in the 1930s, improvements in community resources and opposing racial violence in the 1940s, addressing rapid changes in race relations in the 50s and 60s, and supporting educational opportunities for young Black women in the 1970s.
Though its numbers are lower, the association is still active in the twenty-first century, assisting the many people displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 and the people of Dumas after a 2007 tornado.
Now the Arkansas Association of Women, Youth and Young Adults Club, the organization celebrated its 110th anniversary in 2015, still following the motto “Lifting As We Climb.”
You can read more about The Arkansas Association of Colored Women on at the encyclopediaofArkansas.net.
