Who We Are:
The Martha Briggs Educational Club, Inc., is one of New Bedford's oldest organizations for women of color. Throughout the club's history, our members have been dedicated to education and the role that community service plays in making our lives and communities richer. Our members have been proud to support the educational achievements of many young men and women and to serve as role models and mentors to generations of our youth. Club History:
The club was founded in 1920 by a group of colored women in New Bedford seeking to establish a student aid fund. Jennie Wilder Lee, who became the first president, led a meeting to organize the club. It was named for Martha Briggs, a model of the achievements they thought to encourage. The club filed with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to become a corporation on November 20, 1939. Club Activity and Events:
•!• Monthly meetings
•!• Membership tea
•!• Scholarship Dinner Dance
•!• Student Scholarship Awards
•!• Annual Lenten Tea
•!• Black History Month Programs
•!• Educational Workshops
•!• Cultural Offerings
•!• Group Trips
•!• Youth Mentoring Activities
•!• Community Service Programs
The Martha Briggs Educational Club meets at II :00 AM on the first Saturday of the month from September to June. The regularly scheduled meetings are held in accordance with the club's Bylaws. When the business of the club permits, guest speakers or presentations supplement the agenda. Martha Bailey Briggs (1837- 1889)
Martha Briggs was born in New Bedford on March 31, 1838. She devoted her life to the educational advancement of African Americans. As a young girl, she taught escaped slaves to read and write at her father's home in New Bedford, MA. Her father, John Briggs, was a well-known abolitionist who counted Frederick Douglass and George Downing among his friends. Martha was one of the first black women to graduate from New Bedford High School and later went on to graduate from Normal School. She began her teaching career in Newport, RI, as a private teacher to George Downing, a well know black entrepreneur in Newport and New York. She went on to become an educator and teacher trainer in Washington, DC. She became principal at the Miner School, which was noted for training African American teachers who proceeded to teach generations of youth in the South. Martha also served as a mathematics instructor at the Howard Normal School, which eventually became the School of Education at Howard University.
