A black Baptist woman broke a segregation barrier in disaster relief in 1912.

Evidence

In 1912 Virginia Broughton, the recording secretary of the Woman’s Convention, was the first black person to be appointed by the Associated Charities of Memphis, Tennessee, to assist flood victims. The flooding of the Mississippi Valley had caused death and loss of property for blacks and whites alike. The Associated Charities emerged in response to the disaster and furnished food, clothes, fuel, and medical attention. As matron at Camp Crump, a refuge for black victims of the flood, Broughton assessed the needs of individuals and families and arranged for relief. — Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Righteous Discontent, 1592

Categorization

• XREF: Fits the pattern of black Baptist women entering interracial professional spaces on their own terms, like the domestic-training missions and municipal reform work of earlier chapters. — connects to: Black social Christianity rested on many small givers, not wealthy patrons