BIRMINGHAM'S BLACK YWCA

FOR OVER SIXTY YEARS, the house at 500 Eighth Avenue North was a landmark in Birmingham, and an important part of adolescence for many young girls. Home to the "colored" division of the Young Women's Christian Association in Birmingham, the Eighth Avenue Branch provided a safe haven for young black women coming to the segregated industrial city for employment. Several generations of women gained leadership and organizational skills there. They learned to sew, cook, dance, and sing. It was a place where girls became educated women and a vital part of the black community.

The original YWCA movement began in England at the peak of the Industrial Revolution. In 1855, Miss Emma Robarts established groups for young ladies traveling to London in hopes of becoming self-supporting. The majority of these girls promptly found work but soon became lost in the big city with little or no contact with family members back home. They worked long, tiring hours, often in unsanitary conditions, with poor ventilation and no breaks. Meanwhile, across town, the Honorable Mrs. Arthur Kinnaird opened a hostel on Upper Charlotte Street for Florence Nightingale's nurses traveling to the Crimea. Out of the concerns and cooperation of both Robarts and Kinnaird, the YWCA emerged.

As the Industrial Revolution crossed the ocean, so did the YWCA. In America, the YWCA quickly became one of the largest independent women's organizations and the only one with a substantive participation by women of both races.

In 1900, a determined twenty-two-year-old, Maybelle Sloss, founded the main branch of the YWCA in Birmingham. As the city became the new industrial capital of the South, it attracted scores of young women looking for employment. Sloss urged the community to give "hundreds of noble working girls influences which will keep them sweet and womanly in adverse circumstances." She convinced every member of her Bible class at the First Methodist Church to raise one hundred dollars annually to support the organization. From this early beginning, the YWCA grew rapidly.

In its earliest years, the YWGA was nationally known for its progressive ideas, and the Birmingham chapter was no exception. Due to Jim Grow laws and regional customs, an integrated association remained impossible in Alabama. However, the national organization encouraged the establishment of a segregated "colored" branch and sent representatives to Birmingham to help with this task. The idea finally came to fruition in 1912, when Pauline Jackson established the city's first YWCA for black women, which quickly grew to a membership of over eight hundred women and young girls. Eva Bowles, the first African-American secretary of the national board of the YWCA, came to Birmingham to help Jackson. Bowles served as the director of the Colored Work Committee of the YWCA and believed that the YWCA was "the pioneer in interracial experimentation." Her career was committed to the vision that the bonds of Christian sisterhood were deeper than race. With the help of Jackson and other women leaders of the Birmingham black community, Bowles organized what eventually became known as the Eighth Avenue Branch. (The first branch was originally located on the corner of Sixteenth Street and Eourth Avenue North, but it was soon relocated to the house on Eighth Avenue.)

From the outset, the Branch offered training, mentoring, physical education, and a safe, community environment for young black women. Courses were offered on a variety of topics ranging from typing to ceramics, fitness to piano. By 1924 the Branch became a Community Chest agency, and in 1932 it was officially affiliated with the central YWGA. Records suggest that this was the first affiliation of its kind. "The secretary of the central office attended the meetings of the Branch Board of Management and was kept in contact about all Branch programs.

Over the years, the Branch became a hub of activity, not only for the residents, but for many local women and young girls. YTcens became an extremely popular program for high school girls and met in schools and churches throughout the city. Parker, Carver, Wenonah, and Ensley high schools all had active YTeen programs. At its peak, over a thousand young women participated in the program. They met to plan social functions and service projects and to learn the finer points of etiquette. Roberta Lowe, Youth Director in the early seventies, remembers teaching afternoon piano lessons, then quickly pushing back the den furniture to teach nightly dance lessons. The activities were designed to encourage fellowship among the girls while also teaching them valuable morals, manners, and behavior.

The home on Eighth Avenue was constantly in use and, as a result, often in need of repair. But money was always in short supply. Although the Branch received funds from the United Way, it was never enough to operate all of the programs offered while simultaneously keeping the building in good shape. In 1975 the building was condemned and destroyed, and in 1977 the Branch and the Central YWCA consolidated. Today, Parker High School stands on the site of the former Eighth Avenue Branch.

From its earliest days before World War I until the end of the Civil Rights era, the Branch provided a strong presence in the Birmingham black community. As the YWCA of Birmingham celebrates its hundredth year of service, a special exhibit is planned at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute to document the important role the Eighth Avenue Branch played in that city's history, and to honor the many women involved, both administratively and recreationally, in the Branch's success. The exhibit will be on display September and October of 2003.

Ashley Grantham and Gillian Goodrich are conducting research on Birmingham's black YWCA for the centennial exhibit.

Copyright University of Alabama Press Fall 2003
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