"The National Association of Colored Women (NACW) was the first national black organization in the United States and continues to exist today as the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs. In the early part of the twentieth century the organization was involved in a variety of projects to address problems of health, housing, education, and working conditions and was led by such important and vital figures as Mary Church Terrell and Mary McLeod Bethune. Elizabeth Lindsay Davis's volume Lifting as They Climb documents the history of the black women's club movement from its first national conference in 1895 (resulting in the formation of the NACW the following year) to 1933. Author of the 1922 history The Story of the Illinois Federation of Colored Women's Clubs, Davis was herself an active clubwoman and in the 1930s served as chair of the History Committee of the NACW."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved